Rape and sexual offenders Treat juveniles on par with adults: Maneka Gandhi

Chennai: Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi on Saturday favoured treating juveniles accused of heinous crimes like rape on par with adult offenders.

Speaking to reporters here, she said according to the police, 50 percent of all sexual crimes were committed by "16-year-olds who know the Juvenile Justice Act so they can do it."

"But now for premeditated murder, rape, if we bring them into the purview of the adult world, then it will scare them," she said.

Former WCD Minister Krishna Tirath during the previous UPA regime had proposed that juveniles above 16 years guilty of heinous crimes be treated on par with adult offenders.

The move was however opposed by various NGOs and National Commission of Protection of Child Rights which stated that such a proposal was against child rights.

LeT to take advantage
Declare your age below 18 years if you are caught by security personnel--this is a new diktat from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit sent to its cadre in Jammu and Kashmir.

Details of this LeT tactic was given by arrested Mohd Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzala, who was subjected to age determination test as he had claimed to the interrogators that he was 17 years old, official sources said.

After sustained questioning, Jutt, whose age turned out to be 22 years, said his 'masters' across the border had instructed him to give his age as 17 years.

Jutt said the LeT top brass has been telling the new recruits, who are mainly school dropouts or having criminal background, that they should behave as someone who is below 18 years so that they are tried under the Juvenile Justice Act and not normal Indian Penal Code.

The maximum punishment under Juvenile Act is three years. Jutt, a resident of Multan in Pakistan arrested by police in the third week of last month in South Kashmir, said that he had come along with six boys in October, 2012 through North Kashmir's Keran sector, the sources said.