Nine-year-old murdered: Police file sexual assault charges against minor | Latest News Delhi

Gurugram police on Thursday added sexual assault charges to the case against a 16-year-old youth in trouble with the law who was arrested for allegedly murdering a nine-year-old girl and attempting to burn her body in a residential complex on Monday.

Police said they had added Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) based on the boy’s confession and the circumstantial evidence provided by him. The results of the autopsy of the girl’s body were pending, investigators said.

“It was a challenge to get him to tell the truth. For two days, he tried to mislead us. We had to have a friendly conversation to ensure that he was comfortable and revealed (details) before his custody ended on Thursday. He revealed that the victim liked to watch magic tricks and he used to show her such tricks and touch her inappropriately,” said Naveen Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (ACP).

According to the law, anyone who commits sexual assault will be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than three years but which may extend to five years, and will also face a fine under the Pocso Act.

Kumar said the boy told them during the incident on Monday that he kissed the victim and tried to force himself on her when he reached the victim’s house.

“The boy admitted that he had tried to force himself on the girl. When she raised the alarm and threatened to tell her mother, he panicked. He confessed to forcibly kissing the girl and inappropriately touching her under the pretext of performing magic. He had also sexually harassed the girl in the past, but she had never alerted her parents,” he said.

According to earlier police statements, he strangled the girl when she caught him trying to steal her mother’s jewelry and was desperately trying to repay debts he had incurred while gambling.

According to police, he tried to burn the body with naphthalene pellets and camphor.

The youth was produced before the juvenile court on Thursday after completing his two-day protective custody and was sent to an observation home in Faridabad. He will be produced before the court on July 17.

ACP Kumar said they have seized the boy’s mother’s laptop and mobile phone to collect electronic evidence. “We will write to the platforms the boy used; the reports will take at least 45 days. We will get more clarity about his plan and whether he planned the murder when we see a Hindi true crime TV show,” he said.

Kumar said the boy had narrated the entire sequence of events from the morning until his arrest and everything had been put on record.

Ambika Yadav, a senior counsel at the Gurugram court, said that under Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, the juvenile court has to conduct a preliminary assessment of the child’s mental and physical capacity to commit the heinous offence to determine whether the child needs to be tried as an adult under Bhartiya Dand Sanhita.

“This boy, through strangulation, subsequent attempt to set his body on fire and frequently changing his statements to the investigating agency, appears to have an IQ of a sharp criminal, regardless of where his knowledge comes from. If the assessment report supports trying him as an adult, then under the new penal laws, charges would be filed within 60 days and a speedy decision would be made in the shortest possible time,” she said.