Class XI murder accused to be tried as adult: Court

GURUGRAM: A student of Class XI who faces trial for allegedly murdering a seven-yearold boy on the campus of a well-known CBSE school in the city last September will be treated as an adult, the Gurugram sessions court ruled on Monday.

Additional sessions judge JS Kundu upheld the decision of Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) that had ordered on December 20 last year that the boy would be tried as an adult, and rejected the appeal filed by the teenager’s family.

The lawyer for the boy, Sandeep Aneja, said he would move the Punjab and Haryana high court against the order. The seven-year-old boy was murdered on September 8 last year, allegedly with a knife that was used to slit his throat in the boys’ washroom on the ground floor of the school.

Two more appeals challenging the JJB order to allow CBI to take fingerprints of the teenager and a threeday ‘custody’ granted by the JJB to the CBI in November were also rejected by the sessions court.

The murder accused’s family had filed a petition contesting the JJB’s order, claiming it was passed even before the CBI completed its investigation and filed a chargesheet in the case. The CBI filed its main chargesheet naming the boy as the prime accused on February 5 this year.

The agency is yet to file the supplementary chargesheet. The youth’s family also contested the basis of the JJB decision, the teenager’s social investigation and psychological reports, which they were not allowed to contest.

But rejecting their argument, the sessions court observed that the JJB’s judgment was reasoned, judicious and sustainable in the eyes of law. “By giving this judgment today, that the juvenile be tried as an adult, justice was done and the juvenile shall not be leniently let off after such aheinous offence,” said advocate Sushil Tekriwal, who is representing the murdered boy’s father.

“I am glad that our contention has been acknowledged by the court and a significant verdict has been delivered,” he added. The Class XI student, who was 16 and a half years old at the time of the crime, will remain at the Faridabad correction home, where he has been lodged since his detention by the CBI on November 7 last year. (The school and the victim have not been named in the report because of a court order)