Srinagar: The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of a minor arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the acid attack on a woman here in February.
A bail application was put up and discussed before the board headed by Principal Magistrate Touseef Ahmad Magray during which the counsel for the juvenile assured that his family would provide him with the best education.
The counsel also contended that he had been wooed by main accused Sajjad Altaf Rather to accompany him on the scooter on the fateful day of February 1 in return for new clothes.
The juvenile was held along with Rather and Mohd Saleem Kumar and the police had filed a charge sheet in three weeks besides moving a separate application before the board for treating the juvenile as an adult.
According to the amended law, a minor apprehended for a heinous crime would be treated as an adult before the law. Earlier, a juvenile could be out of a remand home after a maximum punishment of five years.
However, the board said in its 15-page order that the bail in the case can be refused on the ground that the juvenile’s release would “certainly defeat the ends of justice”.
“…All that this board wishes to say is that for the present, the board is seized of this bail matter, there is a reasonable assurance about the charge being prima facie credible. It is true that the merits of the case or prima facie tenability of the charge, like an adult, is not entirely decisive to the fate of the bail plea,” the order said.
The board said the gravity of the charge, manner of its perpetration, circumstances in which the offence is alleged to have been committed, its impact on the society at large and the locality and in particular, the aggrieved family has to be taken into consideration before deciding on the bail plea of the juvenile.
“After all ‘defeat the ends of justice’ is not a word of art. It has been thoughtfully introduced by the legislature to arm the board with a right to overcome an otherwise absolute right to bail, where in the totality of the circumstances, release on bail would adversely impact the law and order and the equilibrium of an ordered society,” the order said.
Advocate Naveed Gul, representing the family of the victim, appreciated the decision of the JJB and expressed hope that all the three accused will get the maximum punishment for the crime committed by them.
