Treating juvenile as major in murder trial: HC orders probe against police inspector

The Bombay high court has directed the additional commissioner of police, north region, to inquire into the allegations that an inspector attached to Dindoshi police station misled the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and ensured that a minor arrested in a murder case was treated like a major and lodged in the Thane central jail after his father failed to meet the officer’s demand of ₹50,000

The Bombay high court has directed the additional commissioner of police, north region, to inquire into the allegations that an inspector attached to Dindoshi police station misled the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and ensured that a minor arrested in a murder case was treated like a major and lodged in the Thane central jail after his father failed to meet the officer’s demand of ₹50,000.

The Bombay high court HT Archives

A division bench of justice Revati Mohite-Dere and justice Madhav Jamdar has also asked the prison superintendent to immediately shift the minor to Dongri children’s home till the board decides his claim of juvenility afresh. The police inspector, Samadhan Wagh, has been instructed to hand over the probe to senior inspector Jeevan Kharat, who will collect all relevant documents from the family of the minor and place them before the JJB.

The court’s directions on September 7 came while hearing a petition filed by the minor, who claimed that at the time of his arrest on August 13, 2021 - a day after the murder case was registered - he was 16-years-and-two-months old and should have been treated as a “child in conflict with law”, rather than a major offender.

The plea, filed through his father, said that he was first produced before the JJB at Dongri and lodged in the children’s home. But, a few days later, Wagh called his father and sought documents pertaining to his age and accordingly, his father handed him over a bona fide certificate issued by his son’s school and his Aadhaar – both showing his date of birth as June 4, 2005.

The petitioner alleged that the police inspector kept copies of the certificates and returned the originals, but also demanded ₹50,000. When his father expressed his inability to pay the money, the officer told him that nobody would be able to save his son.

The minor said that Wagh then filed an application to the JJB, seeking to subject him to medical examination to ascertain his age on the ground that the crime committed by him was serious in nature. On August 26, the JJB allowed the application and the minor was examined at the police hospital in Nagpada, which opined that he was aged between 20 and 21.

The JJB allowed the police to take the minor into custody and to produce him before a regular court. The petitioner was produced before the metropolitan magistrate court at Borivali and eventually lodged in Thane prison.

The minor alleged that the police inspector deliberately suppressed the documents collected from his father and misled the JJB as his father refused to pay him. He further contended that the JJB too failed to adhere to the procedure laid down in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act for ascertaining the claim of juvenility.

The HC found substance in the contentions, primarily in view of the fact that the minor’s Aadhaar was issued in 2011 and “as such, the petitioner or his father could not have anticipated any impending case against the petitioner”.

The bench has posted the plea for further hearing on September 22.