(Image source from: Juvenile convicted in Dec 16 gang rape case now at NGO-run shelter})

A lawyer representing the juvenile convicted in the 16 December 2012 gang rape case said that the convict was not in the detention home any more, but at a shelter run by NGO. He spent three years in the detention home. Today, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court will hear plea against the release of the juvenile at 10.30 am, according to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) sources.

The Indian Express quoted Advocate A P Singh as saying that, “I spoke to him around 5 pm. He is free and at the shelter home and will come out of there in a few days.”

Blaming the media for “turning people against” the juvenile convict, he said, “He was supposed to go back home but there are protests there and (television) OB vans have come. We haven’t even been able to speak to his mother.”

After DCW chief Swati Maliwal met Vice President Hamid Ansari, the DCW decided to file a Special Leave Petition in the SC. Maliwal said, Ansari assured to present a proposed amendment to the juvenile justice law in Rajya Sabha in the coming three days. The DCW said it is approaching SC against Delhi HC’s order that declined the stay of the juvenile at the special home.

The DCW petition stated, “The Respondent was one of the convict in the Nirbhaya Gang Rape case. At the relevant time of the offence, the said Respondent was juvenile and was ordered to be sent to a Special Home for a period of three years. The period three years expires on 20.12.2015.”

- Sumana