Rape of five-yr-old: Accused was major, say jail authorities

A Delhi court has been informed by jail authorities that one of the two youths, who claimed that he was a juvenile at the time of his arrest in the rape case of a five-year-old girl here last year, was a major.
The jail authorities, in a report, told the court that as per the ossification test result, accused Pradeep Kumar was aged between 20-22 years at the time of the offence in April 2013.
The court took the report on record and directed that Pradeep be informed about the result of the test.
"As per report received from superintendent of jail in ossification test, age of accused Pradeep was found to be 20-22 years.

"Intimation in this regard be send to the accused through superintendent of jail and DLSA counsel Shalu Jain through DLSA," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg (1) said.
The ossification test was conducted at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital here to determine the age of Pradeep on the court's directions.

Pradeep, in his juvenility plea, had contended that he was a minor when he was arrested from Bihar last April.
The counsel had said Pradeep does not have any age proof to substantiate his claim.
The court is at present recording statements of prosecution witnesses.
Manoj Shah and Pradeep, now in judicial custody, are accused of raping the girl on April 15, 2013 in Gandhi Nagar area in East Delhi.

The child was rescued 40 hours later on April 17. The accused had fled after committing the crime, leaving the girl behind in Manoj's room believing her to be dead. They were later arrested from Bihar.
The police said that some foreign material--three pieces of a candle and one hair oil bottle--was also taken out from the body of the victim and this was also proved by the doctors during recording of their statements in the court.