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Delhi gang-rape: SC rejects petition against release of youngest convict

by IBNS 21 Dec 2015, 07:10 am

New Delhi, Dec. 21 (IBNS) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition challenging the release of the youngest of six men found guilty of raping and torturing a medical student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012, reports said.

The Supreme Court said: "In the absence of any law we can't take away the right of a person. There has to be legislative sanction."

The convict, now 20, was released on Sunday evening from a correctional home. He was treated as a juvenile as per the existing
law as he was a minor when the crime took place.

But enraged at his release, hundreds of people, including the parents of the victim, Jyoti Singh, staged protests.

The plea against his release was filed by the Delhi Commission for Women late on Saturday night and reviewed post-midnight.

On Friday, the Delhi High Court refused to stay the convict's release, saying he cannot be kept in further detention by law. The court said
he would be monitored by the Juvenile Justice Board with help of an NGO until the Delhi government prepares a post-care plan.

The Centre had also opposed the convict's release. "In principle, the central government opposed the release of the juvenile offender at
this stage," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju has said.

The Delhi Commission for Women said in its petition to the Supreme Court that during his stay in the correctional home, the convict
showed lack of remorse and had been further radicalised.