New Delhi, January 28
One of the six accused in the December 16 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi was declared a "minor" by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Monday on the basis of the date of birth on his school certificate.

The accused, who was described as the most brutal of the six accused by the Delhi Police in its chargesheet, was declared 17 years and six months old when the incident took place on December 16 on the basis of his school documents.

The court ordered that the juvenile, who cannot be named as per the law, will be tried under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. If convicted in the gang rape case, he will be sentenced to three years in a juvenile correction facility.

The present and principal of a school at Badayun (Uttar Pradesh) and a former principal, who was in charge of the institute when the accused studied there, had recorded their statements before the Juvenile Justice Board during the previous hearing on January 15.

They informed Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel that at the time of his admission in 2002, the boy’s father had stated that his date of birth was June 4, 1995, which was entered in official records. He further said the school does not take the birth certificate of a student as age proof.

The Juvenile Justice Board also rejected the police's plea for bone ossification test of the sixth accused to determine his age. Advocate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari, who along with Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy had sought that the juvenile be tried with the five adult accused, said: “A bone density test could be conducted only if the court found the school documents inconclusive. But, it accepted the school certificates that were approved by the principal.”

Bhandari said the Board had orally rejected the plea on January 24. 

The prosecution will appeal against the order in a higher court. “Today, the court gave a detailed, 12-page order that rejects our application. We will challenge the dismissal in the high court and request it to direct prosecution of the juvenile under the Indian Penal Code with the other five adult accused. He should not be given the benefit of the JJ Act,” added Bhandari.

Five accused -- Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh -- are already being tried at a fast-track court for the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in a moving bus on December 16, 2012. She died 13 days later after the government airlifted her to a Singapore.