There is understandably considerable anger in everybody at the very idea of the juvenile convicted in the Nirbhaya rape case being released in just three years, that too from a juvenile remand home and not a prison. And to top it all, comes this news that the Delhi Government will be rehabilitating him with a one time financial grant of Rs.10,000 and arranging for a sewing machine so he can rent a tailoring shop.
Surely, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are more deserving of that government grant than this juvenile! It is said that among the six persons who brutally assaulted Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012, it is the juvenile who was the most monstrous of all. Some of the more horrific tortures wreaked upon Nirbhaya were all his ideas. Clearly he is a brute who deserves a harsher punishment.
But here’s what many people don’t know. As a person who was underage at that time, the government was bound by the law – the Juvenile Justice Act to give no more than three years of time in a juvenile remand home. The same act binds the government to provide rehabilitation for the juvenile upon release. This is not something that Arvind Kejriwal set out to do specifically, it’s the central ministry of Women and Child Development who handles this issue.
But let’s take a look at what we can do and cannot do.
For starters, we will not have much progress in appealing to the Supreme Court to extend his sentence or even commute him with an extended sentence into the regular prison system. The court is bound by the law and will not agree to it, even though the judge might personally sympathise with Nirbhaya’s parents.
On the other hand, he is clearly not ready to be rehabilitated yet. Rehabilitation only comes after the person in question accepts his/her fault in whatever they did, whether it’s an act of crime or taking drugs. First comes remorse, then acceptance and only then is the person ready to be rehabilitated.
This juvenile is not ready. From what we hear, he has neither shown the slightest remorse, nor does he have any understanding as to how horrifically wrong his crime was. Even worse are the CBI’s claims that the juvenile may have been radicalised by a fellow inmate, a Kashmiri arrested in the Delhi High Court Blast case.
So now, if the chap is released, not only is a threat to women and children around him, he is even a threat to society in general if he participates in extremist activities.
As additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain said, “No one knows what his mental state is.”
Proper check ups have not been put in place by the management committee. What is his mental condition, no one knows. Is he willing to join the societal mainstream in view of the IB report and what are the follow up action contemplated once he is released. All these aspects are completely missing,” the ASG submitted before a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath.
More importantly, the government’s role in carrying out the juvenile’s punishment is incomplete. They have obviously not referred him to a therapist yet, to sort out his abnormal violent behaviour, the absolute lack of scruples and his obvious enjoyment of seeing people in pain.
Nirbhaya’s parents have been petitioning to extend the juvenile’s sentence
So, on what basis is he ready to be rehabilitated? If the government can’t extend his sentence in a juvenile remand home, it’s fine. The time he spent there has clearly not improved him. If they can’t put him in a regular prison system, it’s okay, we get that there are rules in place.
But the government shouldn’t just be normally releasing him into society on the same basis they would do for a child who stole a mobile phone. But that’s exactly what they are doing.
They should instead be putting him in therapy for a year or two with limited and supervised access to mainstream society until he is no longer deemed a threat. Until he understands what an evil crime he committed. They should be putting his name down in the sex offenders registry with a red flag to his name to indicate that this person should never be employed in any capacity that brings him in close proximity to children. And in the meantime, for heaven’s sake, modify the Juvenile Justice Act to make provisions for proper punishment for minors who have committed heinous crimes. There have been several more such crimes by juveniles both before and after Nirbhaya, so clearly this is not a one-off incident.
All of this may take several years, but do it anyways. Do anything else, but for the sake of humanity, do not make elaborate plans to set him up as a tailor, arrange private taxis for his family and relatives to come and pick him up at the government’s expense. Don’t ever let him think that it’s okay to treat women like that because he got off so easily the first time, besides being rewarded by the government with money to set up shop. Enough is enough.
