Supreme Court moved on Banda rape

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court was Thursday approached by a petitioner over the blatant disregard of the juvenile justice in the case of a minor girl who was raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district by ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi last month.

The rape victim who spent about a month in jail, over an allegedly false theft case, was released earlier this month.

The petition, likely to come up Friday, said that the procedure laid down in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 for handling cases of juveniles in conflict with law was not followed in the Banda victim’s case.

Petitioner N. Raja Raman said that a magistrate is not empowered to take cognizance of the offence committed by a juvenile and cannot try the case.

The magistrate after recording the juvenile status of the accused should hand over the case to the competent authority to deal with such cases like juvenile justice board, the petition said.

Raman’s petition said that none of the statutory institutions, including the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women, moved to rescue the girl.

Dwivedi, after allegedly raping the girl, had got her arrested last month on charges of stealing his licensed revolver, a mobile phone and Rs.5,000 in cash.

Last week, Mayawati ordered the arrest of Dwivedi after the preliminary report submitted by the crime branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) confirmed that the teenaged girl was gang-raped. Dwivedi was arrested and sent to Banda jail.