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Youngest Delhi gang-rape convict to walk free from reform home

by IBNS 19 Dec 2015, 08:49 am

New Delhi, Dec 19 (IBNS) The juvenile offender in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case will be freed from a special home in the next few days after the Delhi high court on Friday refused to stay his release stating that there is lack of any legal provision to intervene.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath  directed the Juvenile Justice Board and Delhi government to chart out a plan for his "social mainstreaming".

"We agree it is a serious issue. But after December 20, a juvenile cannot be kept in the special home per law," the court said rejecting a petition by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. 

The juvenile is  likely to come out of the home on Sunday when he finishes the three-year term. He was the  youngest of six men convicted of raping and torturing a medical student, Jyoti Singh, on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012.

The convict was just a few months short of 18 when he and five others attacked  the 23-year-old girl and her male friend. He was reportedly most cruel with the girl, who died from severe injuries 13 days after the fateful night. The incident triggered a huge outrage across the country leading to protests.  Four of the rapists have been sentenced to death and a fifth was found dead in prison.

For three years, Jyoti's parents  had fought to stop the release of the juvenile. "The court abandoned us. We did not get justice. Despite all our efforts, the criminal will get away with what he did," her mother Asha Devi said.