In the Pune Porsche accident case, the Bombay High Court ruled, ‘The teen accused must be released from detention immediately’. The 17-year-old boy’s late-night dash in a Porsche on May 19 left two 24-year-old engineers dead and sparked nationwide outrage.
‘We are bound by law, the aims and objectives of the Juvenile Justice Act and must treat him as any child in conflict with law separately from adult, despite the seriousness of the crime’, said the bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande.
The court observed that the Juvenile Justice Board’s order, remanding him in an observation home, was illegal and passed without jurisdiction. It clarified that the teenager is under rehabilitation and had been referred to a psychologist and these sessions will continue. The court noted that rehabilitation is the primary objective. ‘The CCL (child in conflict with law) is under 18. His age needs to be considered’, said the court.
The ruling came on a habeus corpus petition by the boy’s aunt, who had sought his release from a government observation home. The teen will now be under the care of his aunt, as his parents and grandfather have been arrested for an attempted cover-up.
Prashant Patil, the lawyer for the boy’s aunt, said that the Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice Act is clear: a child in conflict with law cannot be arrested. Patil said, ‘Our case was simple. Based purely on law, a child in conflict with law cannot be arrested in the manner in which he was detained in this case’.
Late on May 19, a speeding Porsche driven by the teen had hit a bike. Engineers Ashwini Kostha and Aneesh Awadhiya, who were on the bike, were killed on the spot. Eyewitnesses claimed that the teen, who was with two friends, was heavily drunk at the time of the accident.
CCTV footage from a pub he had visited showed him drinking with his friends before the crash. The teen was thrashed by the crowd that had gathered at the accident spot and handed over to cops.
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