Juvenile involvement in rape cases on the rise in Capital

According to Delhi Police, the new generation of adolescent and teenaged boys in the city is getting entangled in hardcore criminal acts, including heinous cases of rape. Karan Choudhury reports.

They should be in school studying, taking part in extra-curricular activities and getting through the rigours of education.

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But according to Delhi Police, the new generation of adolescent and teenaged boys in the city is getting entangled in hardcore criminal acts, including heinous cases of rape.

In the last two months, juveniles were involved in two of four major cases of gangrape in the city.

Shockingly, this year the city witnessed the highest number of sex-related crimes in the city. According to Delhi Police records, the figures are at all-time high.

While in the last few years, just five to 10% of the accused involved in sex-related crimes were juveniles, this year, the percentage has risen to whopping 27%.

"There has been a major increase in the number of sex-related crimes in the city. We are also not able to do much to check them. But these juveniles do pose a serious threat to society. Most are into drugs and sex-related crimes," said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Not only this, juveniles have been involved in cases of alleged sexual torture as well.

Three siblings, including a seven-year-old boy, were injected with sedatives, made to consume smack and forced to indulge in incest by their school cab driver and his associates for over a year in central Delhi's Prasad Nagar.

The children were raped and sodomized by they seniors in school.

In another case, a juvenile was allegedly involved in abducting a 19-year-old girl in an autorickshaw and allegedly raping her in Mandawali on November 3.

"There are many reasons behind the increase in the last two years of juveniles involved in sex-related crimes. They know the meaning of rape and what they are doing. They find rape exciting and this is a serious issue which has to be dealt with," said Dr Rajat Mitra, director, Swanchetan Society for Mental Health.