Mumbai gangrape: Row erupts over suspect’s age as family says 16,police claims he is 19

Further,based on the documents provided by the grandmother of the accused,the latter’s eldest sibling was born in 1992.

The Mumbai police,meanwhile,maintained that the certificates have been tampered with,to conceal the real age of the accused.

“The accused has had a history of arrests with the police for petty crimes. So based on these records,we have arrived at his age by adding the years to fill in the gap. Previously,we had arrived at his age after checking with his parents and family,” said Ambadas Pote,deputy commissioner of police,detection-II. He added,“We will conduct an ossification test and other medical tests to prove his age only if doubts are raised over this.”

“We asked the accused his age after his arrest and he said he was 19-year-old,said Praveen Salunke,additional commissioner of police,central region.

According to the birth certificates produced by the grandmother,the first sibling of the accused,a sister,now aged 21,was born on December 16,1992. The second,allegedly the eldest brother of the accused,was born in 1994,while the third child and second elder brother,was born a year later on May 5,1995. The accused was born 21 months later on February 26,1997,according to the grandmother.

The 60-year-old grandmother added that all children were born in B Y L Nair Hospital,located around two kilometer away from the home of the accused in Dhobi Ghat,Mahalakshmi.

Citing it to be a weekly off,the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s public health department,which maintains the register of birth and deaths in the city,refused to check the veracity of the mother’s claims on Saturday.

The old woman also claimed the mother died in 2003 when the accused was about five-year-old.

“Their mother died during childbirth along with her sixth child,at the age of 33,about 10 years ago. I then raised the boys as my own as they had no one else. My grandson is 16-year-old,he is not yet a major. He is a little fat,so the police may have mistaken him to be older,” she said.

“If the accused’s grandmother wants to challenge us,she can always come to the police station and we will verify if the birth certificate has been tampered with to mislead his age. It is very easy to get fake birth-certificates these days,” said Pote.