In the latest development in the 2022 Jubilee Hills gangrape case, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday, April 25, set aside a POCSO Act court order allowing the four Children in Conflict with Law (CCLs) charged with gangrape to be tried as an adult. The gangrape happened on May 28 last year, and the police booked six persons in the case — five CCLs and an adult named Saduddin Malik. While Saduddin and the four CCLs were charged with gangrape, the fifth CCL, the son of an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator, was charged with molestation.
In September 2022, the Juvenile Justice Board in Hyderabad had pronounced that the four Children in Conflict with Law (CCLs) charged with gangrape can be tried as adults, as the alleged offences against them are heinous in nature, and the CCLs were aged about 16 to 18 years at the time of the incident. The fifth CCL facing molestation charges will be tried as a juvenile, the board had said. This order was later confirmed by the Special Judge for Trial of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act Cases-cum-XII Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge for the trial of cases under POCSO Act, Hyderabad.
A petition was filed in the Telangana High Court, arguing that the assessment was conducted in a hasty manner without following Supreme Court guidelines. The petition also contended that certain documents were not supplied to the children or their parents and guardians as per the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act as well as Model Rules. Hearing the petition, Justice G Anupama Chakravarthy set aside the lower court order, and directed the Juvenile Justice Board to conduct a “fresh preliminary enquiry”.
The High Court observed that “it is evident that within one day the entire assessment was done and the learned Magistrate has also deferred with the Board Member’s findings and came to a conclusion that on interaction she is of the opinion that the CCLs are mentally and physically fit and can be prosecuted as adults.”
The counsel for the petitioner also pointed out that following the assessment of the CCLs, the Principal Magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board, Hyderabad had differed with one of the board members. The September order had mentioned that while a board member who also interacted with the CCLs said in her report that they “may have been lured by the welcoming approach of the victim and that the CCLs do not have legal education and hence [were] unable to understand the legal consequences,” the Principal Magistrate differed with this observation. “Whether the victim lured the CCLs or not is an issue of fact and cannot be determined at this stage. This is only an enquiry to assess the physical and mental ability of the CCLs and to assess whether they understand the consequences of the offence or not,” the order said.
The incident happened on May 28, 2022, and came to light three days later when the minor survivor’s father lodged a complaint with the police. Saduddin and four of the CCLs, who allegedly raped the survivor, were booked under sections 376D (gangrape) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sections 5(g) (gang penetrative sexual assault on a child) read with section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. They have also been booked under sections 366 (kidnapping a woman), 366A (procuration of a minor girl), and section 67 in The Information Technology Act for circulating certain videos of the survivor. One of these four CCLs is a relative of an AIMIM MLA.
The sixth CCL is the son of the AIMIM MLA, who was booked under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 323 of the IPC and section 9(g) (gang sexual assault on a child) read with section 10 of the POCSO Act.
In June 2022, the Hyderabad police filed a chargesheet both in Nampally criminal court and the Juvenile Justice Board. The police, however, made a plea to the Juvenile Justice Board to allow the CCLs to be treated as adults during the trial, in view of the serious nature of the offences. In September, the Board gave its nod to try the four CCLs charged with gangrape as adults. Later, a POCSO Act court also ruled in its favour. All the accused are currently out on bail.