Gurgaon school murder: CBI has no infra to probe cases involving minors\, says High Court

Gurgaon school murder: CBI has no infra to probe cases involving minors, says High Court

The CBI had earlier admitted before the Board and the court of Additional Sessions Judge that it does not have officers specially trained to undertake investigation involving children, the single bench noted in the judgment.

Written by Sofi Ahsan | Chandigarh | Published: October 23, 2018 12:59:06 am
The decision to order a fresh decision has been made by the single bench due to non-compliance of provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act by the Board as well as the court of the Additional Sessions Judge, according to the judgment. (Representational Image) 

DIRECTING THE Juvenile Justice Board to make a fresh assessment on whether the accused in the murder of a student of a prominent Gurgaon school has to be treated as an adult or juvenile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said the CBI does not have the infrastructure to conduct investigation in cases where the accused is a minor.

The observation was made by Justice Daya Chaudhary. The CBI had earlier admitted before the Board and the court of Additional Sessions Judge that it does not have officers specially trained to undertake investigation involving children, the single bench noted in the judgment.

“Meaning thereby, it is clear that the CBI does not have such an infrastructure to conduct the investigation for reaching to its logical conclusion keeping in view the special provisions of the (Juvenile Justice) Act 2015. All these grounds were mentioned before the Appellate Authority but were not taken into consideration,” the judgment reads.

The judgment on the revision plea against the Board’s decision to treat the accused as an adult during trial had been pronounced on October 11.

A Class II student had been found with his throat slit inside a washroom of the school on September 8, 2017. The Haryana police had earlier arrested a bus conductor but the CBI later arrested the Class XI student.

“The case is remanded back to the Board for a fresh consideration after assessing the intelligency, maturity, physical fitness as to how the juvenile in conflict with law was in a position to know the consequences of the offence. The necessary exercise be done within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of certified copy of the order,” Justice Chaudhary ordered.

He further ordered that the opinion of a psychologist of a government hospital also needs to be obtained during the preliminary assessment.

The decision to order a fresh decision has been made by the single bench due to non-compliance of provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act by the Board as well as the court of the Additional Sessions Judge, according to the judgment.