THE minor boy, who has been accused of ramming a luxury car into a motorcycle killing two IT engineers in the western Indian city of Pune in the wee hours of May 19 under the influence of alcohol, has been kept at an observation centre, which was a reformatory school during the British colonial times.
The Indian Express daily reported citing officials saying that while the former colonizers set up reformatory schools in their own country and the colonies to house children accused of engaging in criminal activities, industrial schools were made to give protection to needy minors.
The minor was remanded to the centre in Yerawada area of the city by the Pune Juvenile Justice on Wednesday (22) and he will be there till June 5.
Read: Pune crash: Killer Porsche, priced at £236k, plied without registration as owner didn’t pay £17
“He is lodged with other juvenile inmates of the observation home. While it has separate cells for those whose trial is on and those whose cases have been decided, all inmates do their routine activities together,” an official of the centre was quoted as saying by the report.
Officials said the observation home, which was a reformatory school between April 1889 and April 1936 and redesignated as 'Yeravada Industrial School Poona' after that till 1989, has a sanctioned capacity of 100 children under three heads -- observation home for children detained for crimes; special home for children held for serious crimes; and a care and protection home for destitute children.
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The centre was made into a care home for destitute children in the early 1990s. In 2009, it was turned into an observation home for juveniles in conflict with law, the Indian Express report added.
However, the centre houses less than 40 children at any given time due to limited resources. As of May 22, it has 36 inmates. Only boys between 14 and 18 years of age are kept at the centre. The girls have a separate unit. Those children below this age group are kept at separate facilities.
The minor's lawyer said the board has a procedure lasting 90 days to determine whether to consider the former as an adult.
“The Juvenile Justice Act has procedures to determine whether the juvenile should be considered as a minor or an adult. It takes almost 90 days to complete the procedure,” Asian News International reported, quoting Patil as telling reporters.
The two victims of the crash that took place at Pune's Kalyani Nagar area, Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Kostha, died soon after being hit by the speeding Porsche of the minor, son of a prominent real-estate developer of Pune. He was given a bail in 15 hours and his punishment included writing a 300-word essay on road accidents, working with the traffic police for a fortnight and receiving counselling for his drinking habits.
But it soon led to a massive public outrage and the board subsequently cancelled the bail. His father was arrested along with the owners of a bar that served him alcohol despite him being an underage.
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