Shakti Mills gangrape case: Minor accused’s treatment may come to haunt cops

The trials in the 2013 gang rape cases in Central Mumbai’s deserted Shakti Mills compound could be one of the most successful as the prosecution not only managed to prove guilt of all the arrested accused, but also secured death sentence under a newly-amended law for three convicts. However, one issue related to the cases may return to haunt the investigating agency because the ‘Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights’ had directed the government a year ago to form an SIT to see if the police violated the rights of minor accused in the case, but so far there is no clarity if the directions were followed.

“It is established that the investigating officer and magistrate both have failed to perform their duty by not following the procedure as envisaged under the law,” said A.N. Tripathi, secretary, Maharashtra state commission for protection of child rights in his order (copy of which is with The Asian Age), adding that the action of the police in the matter was suspicious and needed to be investigated by another independent agency.

“The state government is directed to issue order to investigate the matter by SIT consisting the officers from police, Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and Child Welfare Committee (sic),” directed the commission in an order passed on September 2, 2014.

Ironically, though the order was passed in 2014, complainant advocate Beena Tendulkar former member of JJB, Mumbai on whose written complaint the commission had passed the direction was not aware of this order till January 1, this year.

“I was not informed that an order had been passed on my complaint and I was waiting for some communication from the commission, but since I did not get any message for a long period I decided to visit the commission to check the status and to my surprise the commission had passed the order in September 2014,” said Ms Tendulkar.

Ms Tendulkar, who is busy conducting workshops on human rights at various places in Maharashtra, told this newspaper, “After coming to Mumbai I will write to the Bombay high court requesting it to look into this matter as I had sent copy of my complaint to the HC in 2013 itself and I would also request the court to take suo motu cognisance of the child rights commissions findings and issue directions to the government and the police so that children’s rights are not violated in future.”

‘Glad somebody has raised the issue’ Speaking on the issue, well known child rights activist Maharukh Adenwalla said, “Sadly, there are lots of juveniles who are clearly under 18 years of age, but the police show them as being adult that is why the matter goes to magistrate court, instead of the Juvenile Justice Board. Sadly, the magistrates are also not identifying them to be juvenile and you have cases where the juvenility is recognised when the matter reaches the Supreme Court and for several years children are deprived of the benefits of juvenile legislation or the protection of juvenile legislation which is absolutely and totally wrong.” She further said, “I am glad that somebody has raised this issue and I hope that something comes out of this whereby people’s juvenility is identified at the first instance itself.” Ms Adenwalla also said, “I do believe that children sometimes even have proof of birth, but despite that they are sent to the criminal justice system. So it almost seems that the police is deliberately showing them to be adults so that they can have their custody.”

Revisiting the case A 22-year-old intern photojournalist with a magazine had gone with her male colleague to the deserted Shakti Mills compound located in the Central Mumbai, on an assignment on August 22, 2013, but she was gangraped there. The police arrested five people, including a minor.

The accused were arrested on August 23. Later, only on August 30, the police produced the minor accused before the Juvenile Justice Board when it got copy of his birth certificate from the BMC and realised later that his age was 16 years and 6 months only on the date of the offence.

The complaint After confirmation of the age, the minor accused was kept at the remand home at Dongri where advocate Beena Tendulkar was also a member. During an interaction with Ms Tendulkar, the minor boy started crying and told her that he was a minor and informed the police, but they forced him not to disclose the fact to anybody and subjected him to third degree torture after securing his custody.

When this minor was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, the police claimed that the boy had not informed them that he was 19 years old and the copy of the birth certificate provided by the family had some overwriting that made it difficult to understand the date. So to confirm his age, the police got a copy of the birth certificate from the BMC, which proved he was a minor.

Ms Tendulkar, however, believed that something was not right as the boy’s age was confirmed by his birth certificate which could have been done at the earlier stage also and since he was too young, it was the duty of the magistrate to ascertain his age before sending him to police custody. She then wrote a complaint letter to the State Child Rights Commission and the Bombay high court highlighting the plight of the minor accused. Child rights commission started hearing this issue and came to the conclusion that both the police and the magistrate failed to perform their duty and an investigation into this was required.

Registrar general of the Bombay high court was not available for comments on this issue, while K.P. Bakshi, additional chief secretary, home, said he needed time to find out if the SIT was formed, but later did not reply.

The trial The sessions judge convicted all the four accused and the Juvenile Justice Board also convicted the minor boy for gangraping the photojournalist. Other accused were Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari and Siraj Rehman. A telephone operator was also gangraped at the same deserted Shakti Mills compound a few months before the photojournalist. Five accused were also convicted in the telephone operator’s rape case, but three convicts in both the offences were found to be same and hence the sessions court had awarded death sentence to them under a newly amended law. The appeal against conviction and the state government’s application for confirmation of death sentence is pending before the high court. Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari were the three convicts who were awarded death sentence.