Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/picked-up-in-july-for-rioting-three-muslim-schoolchildren-still-in-jail-by-vidya-subrahmaniam-10852.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Picked up in July for ‘rioting,’ three Muslim schoolchildren still in jail by Vidya Subrahmaniam | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Picked up in July for ‘rioting,’ three Muslim schoolchildren still in jail by Vidya Subrahmaniam

Hope in sight finally with NHRC sending notice on the matter to SSP of Moradabad

Nearly four months after they were detained by the police, three Muslim schoolchildren are still in the District Jail here, unable to get bail for an offence their distraught families claim they never committed. The children have been charged, among other things, with rioting and attempt to murder.

But now, finally, hope seems in sight with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sending notice on the matter to the Senior Superintendent of Police of Moradabad. A key question here is whether children can be kept in jail when the law requires that they be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and sent to a remand home.

The children, along with 35 adults, were picked up on July 6, 2011 — the day clashes broke out between the police and a section of Muslims over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by a raiding police party at Asalatnagar Bagah village, falling under the Mainather Police Station.

Enraged by the “Koran incident,” Muslims gathered in large numbers, blocked traffic on the Moradabad-Sambhal Road and burnt down a police chowkie in the area. The police fired upon the crowds, which turned violent and attacked a senior police officer, who was admitted to hospital with a serious head injury. The police registered four FIRs in all against the alleged rioters and the charges included Section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder).

The families of the three children claim their wards had nothing to do with the violence and were on their way home from different schools (all English medium public schools) when they found themselves stranded because of the riots. The police say they have a video recording of the violence. However, the recording has not been shown to the families or to a fact-finding team, which later met the police. The former Station in-charge of Mainather, Jitendra Kumar, told The Hindu that the children were not children but adults — meaning there is no bar on keeping them in jail.

The families call this “falsification” of recorded facts. The school certificates of the children show their dates of birth as June 25, 1997; May 15, 1997; and November 10, 1995. In other words, on the day they were arrested, two of the boys had just turned 14, while the third was not yet 16. Two of the families also have copies of the attendance registers, which show their children were present in the school on July 6, 2011.

‘Wrongly detained’

The plight of the jailed children was brought to the notice of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the NHRC by Syed Akhlak Ahmad, secretary of the Delhi chapter of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights. Mr. Ahmad, who led the fact-finding team to Moradabad, concluded that the children were wrongly detained.

Two recent judgments of the Supreme Court ought to go in favour of the jailed children. On August 5, 2011, the Court ruled that the school certificate was the most important document in determining the age of a child, prevailing other documents and medical tests.

This demolishes the argument of the police that the jailed children are not children.

If so, minor children cannot be jailed — even assuming that they committed a crime. Indeed, last week, the Court prescribed a set of directions for dealing with “children in conflict with law” (a term far more sensitive than child accused or child offenders), including appointment of a designated juvenile/child welfare officer in every police station and the creation of Special Juvenile Police Units staffed with child welfare officers in all districts.

Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of children) Rules 2007, apprehended children have to be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board within 24 hours. The police officer who arrests them has to inform their parents and provide details of their socio-economic background to the Board. The Rules also prohibit filing FIRs against children and charge-sheeting them except in grave offences such as rape and murder.