Nine-year-old murdered: Police add sexual assault charges to case against juvenile

The Gurugram Police on Thursday added charges of sexual assault to the case against a 16-year-old juvenile in conflict with the law, who was apprehended for allegedly murdering a nine-year-old girl and trying to burn her body at a residential society on Monday.

Police said they added Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act based on the boy’s confession and circumstantial evidence indicated by him. The results of the autopsy of the girl’s body were still awaited, investigators said.

“It was a challenge to make him reveal the truth; he tried to mislead us throughout two days. We had to adopt a friendly conversation to ensure he felt comfortable and reveal (details) before his custody ended Thursday. He revealed that the victim was fond of watching magic tricks and he often showed her such tricks, while touching her inappropriately,” said assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Naveen Kumar.

As per law, whoever commits sexual assault shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term, which shall not be less than three years, but which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to a fine, under the Pocso Act.

Kumar said that during the incident on Monday, the boy told them that upon reaching the victim’s house, kissed her and tried to force himself on her.

“The boy revealed that he tried to force himself on the girl. When she raised the alarm and threatened to tell her mother, he panicked. He confessed to forcefully kissing the girl and, under the pretext of showing magic, touching her inappropriately. He sexually harassed the girl in the past too, but she never alerted her parents,” he said.

To be sure, earlier police said that he strangulated the girl to death when she caught him trying to steal her mother’s jewellery, and that he was desperate to repay debts incurred while gambling.

He used naphthalene balls and camphor to try and burn the body, according to police.

The juvenile was produced before the juvenile justice board (JJB) on Thursday after his two-day protective custody ended and was sent to an observation home in Faridabad. He will be produced before JJB on July 17.

ACP Kumar said they recovered the laptop and cellphone of the boy’s mother for electronic evidence collection. “We will write to the platforms used by the boy; the reports will take at least 45 days. We will get more clarity on his plan and whether he had planned the murder by watching a Hindi true-crime TV show,” he said.

Kumar said the boy revealed the entire sequence of events, starting from the morning till the time he was caught and everything has been brought on record.

Ambika Yadav, a senior legal counsel at the Gurugram court, said that as per Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, the JJB must conduct a preliminary evaluation of the child’s mental and physical capacity to commit the heinous offence in order to determine whether the child has to be tried as an adult under the Bhartiya Dand Sanhita.

“This boy, through the strangulation, then attempt to set body ablaze and further frequent changing of statement in front of investigation agency seems to be having IQ like that of sharp criminal, no matter what may be his source of knowledge. If the assessment report goes in favour of trying him as an adult, then as per new criminal laws, charges would be framed within 60 days and an expeditious decision would be rendered in no time,” she said.