‘Unsure if justice done in Nirbhaya case’

Ahead of the release of the juvenile convict in the Nirbhaya gangrape case next month, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has expressed helplessness in extending punishment to him. While the law was adhered to, she was not sure whether justice was done in this most gruesome case.

She advocated that a “close watch” be kept on the accused after he is freed on his completing the sentence. She would raise this issue with the authorities.

“Let us not confuse justice with the law. The law said that he could only go to a children’s home... That’s the anomaly we are trying to correct. So he served his sentence and, in accordance with the law, he is coming out. And there is nothing we can do about it until or unless he commits another crime. So that is all we can do.

“I don’t know whether justice has been served, but certainly the law has been adhered to,” the Minister said. “Yes, I am afraid we are,” she said when asked if the government was waiting for him to commit another crime.

“He is a person who should be kept under watch. We can’t just let him go and wait for him to do something else,” she said.

The juvenile found guilty in the 2012 Delhi gangrape will be released on December 15. He has turned 21 and will complete his three-year term at the prohibition centre.

At 17-and-a-half, he was the youngest of six men who raped and brutally tortured the 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in the capital.

The victim died 13 days later in a hospital in Singapore, where she was taken for treatment by the government.

Four other men found guilty in the case are on death row.