Pune: The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Tuesday rejected the Pune city police’s application seeking that the 17-year-old boy accused in the Porsche car crash be tried as an adult for the trial in the case.
The boy is accused of driving the luxury car in Kalyani Nagar area of Pune in an inebriated state and mowing down motorcycle-borne IT professionals Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Costa in May last year.
Citing sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, the Pune city police filed an application before the Board, seeking that the child in conflict with law (CCL) be tried as an adult in this case. The police said he committed a heinous act, as not only were two persons crushed to death but there were also attempts to tamper with the evidence.
On Tuesday, the Board rejected the plea by police to treat the boy as an adult for the trial, as per defence counsel Prashant Patil. Patil said he opposed the prosecution’s demand to treat the teenager as an adult, by citing some case laws.
The teenager got bail hours after the accident. The lenient bail terms, including asking him to write a 300-word essay on road safety, triggered a nationwide firestorm, following which he was sent to an observation home in Pune. On June 25 last year, the Bombay High Court directed that the boy be released immediately, saying the Board’s orders remanding him to an observation home were illegal and the law regarding juveniles must be implemented fully.
