The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh HC has observed that juveniles are being treated “too leniently”, and that the legislature has “not learnt any lessons from Nirbhaya”. Justice Subodh Abhyankar made the observation on September 11, while dismissing a criminal appeal of a rape offender, who broke out of a juvenile home with seven others. Justice Abhyankar said in the judgement : “…this court is once again at pains to observe that juveniles in this country are being treated rather too leniently, and that the legislature, to the utter misfortune of victims of such crimes, has still not learnt any lessons from the horrors of Nirbhaya…” The accused had moved HC against a 2019 sessions court order sentencing him to 10 years rigorous imprisonment under IPC section 376 (2) and a concurrent 10-year sentence under Pocso Act.
He was accused of raping the four-year-old daughter of his father’s tenant in Dec 2017. He was arrested and sent to an observation home, but broke out in Nov 2019, while his criminal appeal was still being heard in HC. Justice Abhyankar observed : “Looking at the overwhelming medical evidence in the present case, it does not take an expert to see as to how demonic the appellant’s conduct was while he was juvenile, and his mindset can also be gathered from the fact that he has also absconded from the observation home, and presently is at large, probably lurking in some dark corner of the street, for yet another prey, and there is nobody to stop him.” “And, although such voices are being raised time and again by the Constitutional Courts of this country, to the utter dismay of the victims, they have not been able to make any impact on the legislature even after a decade of Nirbhaya which took place in 2012,” he added.
