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Journalism of Courage
BHUBANESWAR, OCT 4: Chenchu, the 13-year-old tribal boy, sentenced to a 14-year detention by a juvenile court in Australian missionary Graham Staines murder case will appeal against the verdict, his counsel said.
The appeal petition on behalf of Chenchu, alias Sudarshan Hansdah, would be filed in Orissa high court after the puja vacation, his counsel Gyana Acharya told PTI here today.
The sentence of 14 years detention to a 13-year old juvenile was unprecedented in Indian legal history, he said.
Chenchu had been held guilty under section 22(1) and 22(2) of the Juvenile Justice Act read with section 120(B), 147, 148, 149, 435, 436 and 302 of IPC for his involvement in the offence of unlawful assembly, murder, causing murder by mischief of setting fire to the two vehicles, in one of which the missionary and his two minor sons were asleep on the night of January 22, 1999.
The counsel said, immediately after the judgment was pronounced on Saturday by Sukumar Sahu, special CBI judge-cum principal magistrate of the juvenile court, and was agreed to by the other member of the bench Gajendra Mohapatra, sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Chenchu broke down and wept bitterly.
The boy was taken to the special observation home at Berhampur after the court order, official sources said.
He would be shifted to the juvenile home at Angul in a day or two as ordered by the court, they added.
