The Awantipora juvenile who was detained by police and later taken to Lakhanpur police station in district Kathua for questioning, was sent to observation home RS Pura Jammu, a day after Greater Kashmir reported about his detention in violation of Juvenile Justice Act.
Chairman, selection-cum-oversight-committee, Justice (R) Hasnain Masoodi, said, “The juvenile has been sent to observation home at Jammu, and we will try that he is bailed out soon.”
On Saturday, the police had raided his home at Sail Awantipora and on not finding him there they had asked his parents to bring him to the police station Awantipora.
Even as the police had assured his parents that the boy would be sent back to his home, they detained him on Sunday and shifted him to Lakhanpur police station in Kathua for questioning in a case of alleged supply of arms to the militants.
The selection-cum-oversight-committee had Thursday questioned the government for “illegally” arresting the boy and sending him 400 kilometers away from his home for questioning.
Justice Masoodi had asked the government to issue “appropriate directions” to all ranks for obeying the Juvenile Justice Act in letter and spirit.
“Despite knowing that the boy is a juvenile, why did the police sent him to Lakhanpur police station, 400 kilometers away from his residence?” Masoodi had written in a letter to the principal secretary, home, and the additional director general of the Jammu and Kashmir police.
However, this was not the first time that a juvenile had been detained by the police. Days earlier, a juvenile from southern Tral township was detained by the police but he was later sent to a juvenile home after this newspaper reported the matter.
In December, six boys from Batamaloo area were detained by the police, but they were released following an intervention by the Juvenile Justice Board of Srinagar.
On October 29, a class 12 student from Shopian was picked by police station Imam Saheb allegedly in place of his brother and detained for two days, preventing him from writing his board examinations.