The infamous Nirbhaya / Damini Rape Case in Delhi in 2012 was a summary of stark contrast and hypocrisy- one of them being the worst rapist among the 5 rapist being allowed to avoid persecution and even getting employment- because of two simple reason, from being 'minor' and 'minority' (Muslim).
Yes, Mohammed Afroz, the one who had triggered, initiated and concluded the rape; the one who conducted the inhumane brutality in the form of the unnatural sex, was the one who was spared of punishment and nobody questioned his immunity while rest of the criminals either committed suicide in guilt or were legally condemned to death.
Mohammed Afroz, who was the leader of the rapist gang aged in their mid thirties to forties, claimed to be 17 years old at that the time of crime. 17 years is the threshold of being juvenile.
India has a quite biased juvenile justice system which is further manipulated by a section of people as a criminal modus operandi to claim immunity.
In India, a juvenile is defined a person falling under the age bar of 17 years. If such person commits a crime, of whatever gravity and magnitude, the person has to be released as they turn 18.
So when such criminals are caught, they claim to be typically 17 years old, as it is the most optimized age to have the least suffering. Consider the following scenario:
A so called minor has killed a man and is caught by the police which furnished a airtight chargesheet with guaranteed conviction of 20 years jail term in normal sense. In case of minor they have to be released after they turn 18. So if a criminal claims to be 15 years old, they have to suffer 3 years jail term. But if they claim to be 17 years old, they will serve only a few months until they turn 18. After that these criminals even enjoy government or non-governmental financial investments to start a new life.
In India Profilian has contacted and discussed this phenomenon with a number of inspector rank (investigative level) police officers and a few IPS officers (administrative level) and a number of experienced criminal lawyers in order to understand these modus operandi.
They told us that this phenomenon has become a criminal modus operandi of the career criminals in many ways and largely belong to one particular community.
There are number of red zones who 17 years old boys are on the watchlist of the local police intelligence as when they turn 17, they violently commit serial crimes with high frequency until they get arrested and their immune criminal career gets ruined. Until arrest they avoid law by hiding in their community ghettos.
The officials we consulted told us that anyone who sees such criminal, are actually aware that the person who is claiming to be 17 years old, is actually 27 but mostly these people carry fake identities or deliberately don't get proper birth or educational certificates that can substantiate their actual age. The courts believe the juvenile claims in the absence of proper counters.
India's penal laws clearly lacks proper alternatives like biomedical tests to substantiate the real age of such criminals who claim to be juvenile.
Many Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrator ghettos in Indian metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities rely on such criminal economy. As they don't have Indian documents and anyways create fake identities, they create false birthdays as well. This specialize in juvenile crimes.
The police unable to counter the criminals' juvenile claims, rather record their birthdays in the legal proceedings which help them counter further juvenile claims in future crimes.
It is a serious criminal modus operandi that needs to be curbed and the BJP led 3rd consecutive government with newly amended criminals laws have taken positive measures to curb this menace.
