December 16 gangrape accused to be freed

Even as the Delhi police contemplated charging the youngest of the six men who gangraped and tortured a student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012 under NSA, sources on Thursday said that he will be released from the special home on December 22 but will be in the custody of an NGO for at least a year.

“No final decision has been taken yet. It is being considered seriously to make him work with an NGO where he would be mostly kept indoors and might be allowed supervised visits home,” said the sources, adding, “that way he would be within sight of the government officials.”

To stop the convict’s release, the gangrape victim’s parents had petitioned the home ministry, courts and the National Human Rights Commission, urging them to ensure that the juvenile remains inside prison even after the completion of his term. They had claimed that he is a threat to national security.

The convict, who was below 18 at the time of the horrific crime, was sentenced to three years in a reform home.

The victim’s parents had claimed that his punishment was not enough considering the enormity of the crime as he was the most brutal of the five accused.

Meanwhile, a group of people from the village of the juvenile convicted in the Nirbhaya case have come to Lucknow to seek help from “just about anyone” to ensure that the boy does not return to the village in Badaun.

“We have been dreading every moment since we learnt that he will be back this month after completing his three year term in the juvenile home. We are meeting politicians, activists, lawyers and even NGOs to help us find a way of keeping the boy out of the village,” said P.K. Yadav, a local schoolteacher. The group from Badaun has met politicians from the ruling party but are disappointed at the response.

“Almost all the politicians said they cannot stop anyone from returning home. Probably, they are waiting for another Nirbhaya-like incident,” said Gorakan Maurya, another villager.