Mercedes hit & run case: Delhi Police to urge Juvenile Board to treat accused as adult

Delhi Police is likely to file the chargesheet in the Mercedes hit and run case tomorrow and they would urge the Juvenile Justice Board to treat the 17-year-old accused like an adult under the new provisions of the law.

The chargesheet in the case is likely to be filed tomorrow. In the chargesheet, the minor has been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, a senior police official said.

“We shall move an application urging the Board to treat the 17-year-old like an adult,” the official said.

Under the new provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act implemented in January, minors in the 16-18 age group can be tried as adults in cases of heinous crimes.

Later this week, the police are likely to file a separate chargesheet against the minor’s father and his driver in connection with the case.

While the father, whose car the minor was driving, has been slapped with the charge of abetment to his son’s offence, the driver who allegedly tried to mislead investigators has been booked for destruction of evidence, the senior official said.

Earlier today, a Delhi court upheld the bail granted to the teenager, saying no bail application is required for release of a minor offender and it is the Juvenile Justice Board’s discretion to decide how long the child has to be kept in the reform home.

The 17-year-old boy had allegedly run over a 32-year-old marketing executive with his father’s Mercedes in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area on April 4. He turned into an adult four days after the incident.