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“It is a matter of concern that juveniles are being found involved in such heinous crimes as rape. More alarming is the fact that they are found to be part of gangs that indulge in such crimes, like the one in Williamnagar on December 13,” said Agnes Kharshiing, secretary of Civil Society Women’s Organisation, a Shillong-based NGO.
Kharshiing blames the government for the increasing trend of juvenile rapists. “When there are dozens of wine shops even near schools and religious institutions, when there are more wine shops than medicine shops and bookstores, what else can we expect from our young people?” she says.
The latest available report of the National Crime Records Bureau shows that Meghalaya, a small state with a population of 29.64 lakh, saw 21 juveniles arrested for rape under IPC section 376 during 2011. The much larger Madhya Pradesh, whose population is 7.25 crore, had a high of 281 juveniles apprehended on rape charges. In terms of such cases per unit population, it leaves Meghalaya with a rate nearly twice that of MP.
Among other northeastern states, Assam too has a high count, with the NCRB report showing the apprehension of 36 juveniles for rape during 2011. Other states in the region had fewer such apprehensions — Nagaland had five, Tripura three, Mizoram and Sikkim three each, while neither Arunachal Pradesh nor Manipur had any. In molestation cases, Assam counted four juveniles apprehended, Mizoram three and Tripura two.
“So many socio-economic factors are to be blamed for this trend of crimes that has afflicted the entire society,” says Suchitra Kakati, who recently completed her term as chairperson of the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. “Long ago we would stop children from watching certain films by marking them with a capital A; today all kinds of dangerous things are easily available at the fingertips.”
Dr Jeuti Barooah, director of Law Research Institute of the Gauhati High Court, agrees. “While I strongly believe that underage persons had been involved in such crime earlier too, such offenders have come into focus only after the arrival of the Juvenile Justice Act,” she says. Barooah expresses doubts, however, over the NCRB data, which she points out was based only on police records from various states. “There is every chance of 18-plus persons being shown as below 18 in order to help sons of influential persons escape the law,” she says.
Never acclaimed accused to be juvenile, who knows how to sex, rape, ruined woman's virginity, blow with lifetime one. Such person who exerts sperm and having knowledge of sexual intercourse, such culprits must be treated as accused of serious heinous crime rape itself, and sentenced to death...that's all.
How you can call a person juvenile if his acts are raping and murdering? They should be just treated for the acts of rape and murder as any common criminal?
When Bollywood movies are seen by three generations together, what more you can expect!
