U'khand: Murder convict declared minor after spending 13 years in jail, set free

Nainital, The Uttarakhand High Court has ordered the immediate release of a prisoner who had been in jail for 13 years in a murder case.

A division bench of Justices Ravindra Maithani and Ashish Naithani found that the convict was a minor at the time of the crime, due to which the life imprisonment sentence given to him was no longer legally valid.

The accused was convicted by the sessions court in connection with a murder and attempted robbery that took place in Roorkee in 2003. His conviction was upheld by a division bench of the high court in 2013 and later confirmed by the Supreme Court.

In 2021, the convict sent an application from jail claiming that he was a minor on the date of the incident, , 2003. To verify this claim, the court directed the Registrar to conduct a detailed inquiry.

After a thorough examination of school records, student registers, and witness statements, the Registrar found that the convict's actual date of birth was May 22, 1988, and he was 15 years and one month old at the time of the crime.

Citing provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, the high court said that the claim of being a juvenile can be raised at any stage, even after the conclusion of the trial or after the completion of the sentence.

The court found that the convict's role in the incident was similar to that of the other accused.

Therefore, while upholding his conviction in the case, the court ruled that since a juvenile cannot be kept in a reformatory for more than three years, nor be given a sentence like life imprisonment, and since the accused has already spent more than 13 years in jail, he is entitled to immediate release.

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