The Juvenile Justice Board on Thursday lashed out at the Noida Police for picking up a 9-year-old boy in relation to a case of theft. The police had registered a case against the boy for ‘possession of stolen property’. According to a report in The Times of India, the cops had picked up the minor along with two other men saying they were part of a gang that robbed people of their phones and cash.
“The gang used the boy in committing the crime. He would sit in the middle of the road and pretend to cry. When anyone would stop by for help, the other two would overpower him and rob them. They used an autorickshaw for the crime which was stolen and found in their possession,” Umesh Bahadur Singh, the SHO of Knowledge Park Police Station told The Times of India.
The police said that the boy had been detained earlier too and lodged at an observation home. “This time, he was detained as he was found in possession of the suspicious property along with others,” added the SHO.
However, when the child was produced before the JJB on Thursday, it lashed out at the cops for detaining the kid, saying that a case of loot or theft should have been lodged against him if he was involved in the crime, not concealment of property.
“According to Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Model Rules, 2016, no first information report should be registered against a child except when he has committed a heinous crime or has been a part of it. In this case, the cops were asked why they did not give him bail at the police station itself,” JJB member Aneet Baghel told The Times of India.
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“From now, we will give bail to children in such matters at the police station level itself,” said Deputy commissioner of police Rajesh Kumar Singh.
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