Pune Porsche crash: JJB remands teenager to observation home till June 5

The JJB, which had earlier granted the minor bail, had issued a notice to him to appear before it on Wednesday. The minor came to the premises of the JJB around Wednesday noon accompanied by his family members and a team of lawyers.

The defence lawyers and prosecution lawyer presented their arguments after which the three-member JJB gave its ruling on Wednesday evening that the boy be remanded to juvenile observation home in Yerwada till June 5. The JJB ruling on the police to try him as an adult is expected to be delivered at a later date after completion of procedures, including a psychological assessment of the minor as per the Juvenile Justice Act, an official said.

A senior police officer monitoring the investigation said, “The entire sequence of events leading up to the accident is now being reconstructed as part of the probe. This includes establishing his locations and actions and then the details of the accident itself. During the minor’s detention at the juvenile observation home, he will undergo a psychological assessment to determine his physical and psychological state of mind at the time of the incident and later. The report of the blood test is still awaited and we are making efforts to expedite it.”

Speaking to the media after the JJB ruling, his lawyer Prashant Patil said, “Today the proceedings were held before the three-member Juvenile Justice Board. Police had filed a review application against the bail granted to the Child in Conflict with Law (CCL). We presented our arguments against this review application. The state argued that there is threat to the security of the CCL outside and for that he should be lodged in a rehab home. We opposed this. Police pressed that probe is on in the case and for that the CCL should be in a rehab home. We argued that for the CCL to be sent to rehab home after he had been granted bail, there should have been modifications in the police application, which were not there. The honourable JJB has ruled that the CCL be sent to rehab home till June 5. The terms of this detention include psychological counselling. We have just heard the operative part of the order as of today. We will get the complete order tomorrow. On whether to challenge this order, we will be discussing the issue with the client tomorrow.”

When asked about the police plea to try the minor as an adult, Patil said, “There are set procedures under the Juvenile Justice Act. Police have to file a chargesheet within a month of registration of offence. In two months after that, reports are to be submitted on the overall state of the CCL including his behavioural and psychological aspects. Reports on his rehabilitation and de-addiction efforts, if any, are submitted. These factors are considered. So the decision on whether to treat him as an adult or not, takes 60 to 90 days.” Patil claimed that the JJB order was “not the cancellation of the earlier bail but was a modification of the previous order.”

Following his detention after the accident on Sunday, the minor was produced before the JJB in Pune on the afternoon of May 19. Police had sought his custody in the juvenile observation home and had also appealed that he be tried as an adult. The JJB — which consisted of just one non-judicial member on Sunday instead of its full strength of three including one judicial member — had rejected both applications and had granted bail to the accused on various conditions including writing an essay, studying traffic safety norms and undergoing de-addiction counselling. The Pune police had then challenged this JJB order in the Pune district court which had referred the matter back to the JJB to be decided again as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, had expressed shock at the “extremely lenient” way in which the 17-year-old boy was granted bail by the JJB despite allegedly mowing down two people with a speeding Porsche in Pune.