DCW appeals against release of juvenile rapist

Challenging the release of the juvenile convict in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Friday appealed to President Pranab Mukherjee to intervene in the juvenile justice issue.

DCW wrote to the president, and chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, urging that the "juvenile" convict be detained till his mental reformation is ascertained.

In a letter to the president, DCW Chief Swati Maliwal said: "...the juvenile in conflict with the law in Nirbhaya's case is being released on December 20, 2015. Recently, Nirbhaya's parents had met me and expressed their deep anguish over the imminent release."

"It was brought on record in the High Court judgment that there is no material to establish the mental state of Nirbhaya's rapist.

Delhi Commission for Women requests for kindly intervention in the matter, ensuring the convict be kept in the Observation Home "until his mental frame of mind and reformation is properly ascertained", the DCW chief said.

Maliwal has requested the president to intervene for quick passage of the Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill.

In her letter to Supreme Court's Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Maliwal demanded setting up a committee to "create a team of the best counsilors from across the country to visit the boy at the observation home and assess his current mental status and the quality of reformation that he has undergone".

The convict is now 20 years old. He was a juvenile in 2012 when the crime he committed the gang rape along with his friends in a moving bus in the capital.

The court found him guilty of raping and assaulting the victim along with five accomplices.

Due to being a juvenile when the crime was committed, he was tried under the Juvenile Justice Act and was ordered to be kept in a remand home for three years.