Pre-teens slitting throats, raping, kidnapping…juvenile crime gets grimmer…
Frighteningly, innocence ends not only in tears, but all too often, also in blood. The nation was shocked when last year three school boys of a primary school in Kharhar, Haryana, molested a 4-year-old girl from the same school. Aged between 10 and 12, the boys allegedly took the unsuspecting girl to a secluded place and touched her private parts. She was rescued when she raised an alarm.
In a more gruesome display of violence, Ramesh (name changed), barely 16, was charged with murder and necrophilia in 2006. Losing his childhood to substance abuse, the schoolboy and two others targeted their 71-year-old neighbour Sarla Rani in Chandigarh’s upmarket Sector 15 for money. They ended up butchering her. As his friends ransacked the dead woman’s house, Ramesh, high on drugs, copulated with the corpse that lay in a pool of blood. His macabre crime belied his young age.
The graph of juvenile crime is on the rise and more and more young children are getting lost in its dark recesses. New Delhi and the NCR saw a disturbing 8.9 per cent increase in crimes committed by the young in 2008, and 7.8 per cent in 2007, according to police reports. The National Crime Record Bureau’s statistics show a steady rise in the percentage of juvenile crimes out of the total crimes committed in India: 1.7 per cent in 2005, 1.9 per cent in 2006 and 2 per cent in 2007.
Sociologists blame a society that is turning increasingly hostile, and is being exposed to growing doses of sex and violence. Add to that a deepening sense of isolation and alienation – and you have an explosive mix. In February 2009, an eight-year-old boy in Delhi, in a fit of rage, slit his six-year-old neighbour’s throat following a fight over a game. The boy was arrested and later sent to an observation home. In the same month, a juvenile was arrested in Manimajra, Chandigarh, for allegedly raping a minor girl.
In Mumbai, the chilling murder of Adnan Patrawala, the 16-year-old son of a Lokhandwala businessman, on August 20, 2007, left the city stunned. He had left home two days before his body was recovered from the marshes near Palm Beach Road in a distant suburb. Investigations revealed that the crime was committed by three youngsters acquainted with Adnan, among them Ayush Bhatt, 19, and Khimesh Ambavat, 18, both from well-to-do families. Adnan had been kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 2 crore, but in the end, it all went horribly wrong.
Then, in a startling throwback to the Adnan case, two teenagers kidnapped and murdered their friend, Rizvi College student Mukeem Khan, 17, on February 13 last year. The accused, Amir Shaikh and Sarfraz Shaikh were 19 and 17.
At just 10, Chavanni, driven out of home by his parents, nosedived into crime. He changed his name as many times as the cases filed against him. At 13, he was already a gang leader. Around 17 now, Chavanni has an elaborate wardrobe which he uses to hoodwink victims. The teenaged Jalandhar don, who brazenly flaunts his love for smack and whiskey, was probably the youngest addict in the region to be booked under the stringent Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
This came even as a12-year old was arrested in July 2008 in connection with the death of his friend Sagar, 11.
Number of View :99
Related posts:
