In clear violation of the law, police kept a minor boy under illegal detention for three days for allegedly participating in student protests against killing of four civilians by government forces.
On April 8, police arrested the 16-year-old boy from his home at Alochi Bagh here. Rameez Ashraf, brother of the minor, said, “My brother is a student at boys higher secondary school Jawahar Nagar. The day protests broke out in schools, he left the school and a friend told him to cover his face because the police was filming them.”
“He covered his face, but the police camera captured him and at 10 in the night police came to our house that very day and arrested him, accusing him of being a stone pelter. My brother has never pelted stones,” Rameez said. “Today he was released. Police said they kept him in detention for ‘counseling’.”
After the implementation of the integrated child protection scheme, the vehicle for the execution of the Juvenile Justice Act, the state government this month designated eight judicial officers as principal magistrates for the Juvenile Justice Boards.
After the creation of the boards, the role of the police has been minimized and the JJBs, as the Juvenile Justice Act states, ‘have to decide the punishment to be given to the juvenile offender’.
But violating the rules, police kept the boy under wrongful detention for two and a half days and was not produced before the CJM, as mandated by the law.
An official in the law department said, “According to the juvenile justice law, a child can never be kept in a police lock-up or regular jail. The police must bring the minor before the Juvenile Justice Board within 24 hours of apprehending/ detaining him.”
“If the police don’t release the minor on bail, he can be kept in an observation home until he is presented before the JJB.”
Adding further, the official said, “The police is also supposed to inform a child welfare officer who is supposed to accompany the minor to the board for the first hearing.”
“If the police could not go to the Juvenile Justice Board, they should within 24 hours approach the CJM.”
When this reporter asked SHO Shergadi police station, Javaid Ahmad, about the detention of the minor, he dropped the phone.
Justice Hasnain Masoodi, former High Court judge and chairperson Selection Cum Oversight Committee that has been created under JJ Act, said, “In the first place the minor was not to be kept in police station, this is violation and it amounts to cruelty. The JJB has the power to get a case registered against the police officer.”