Dec. 16 convict shifted, women's commission races to stall release

TT, New Delhi, Dec. 19: The juvenile convict in the December 2012 Delhi bus gang rape was moved to an undisclosed location days before his scheduled release tomorrow, sources said.

Late tonight, the Delhi Commission for Women launched a last-ditch effort to block his release by moving a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted that she was trying to stop the release, scheduled after 5pm tomorrow. "We are trying our best to stop his release," Maliwal said on her way to the court around midnight.

A vacation bench headed by Justice A.K. Goel, however, decided to hear the matter only on Monday. It did not stay the release.

Sources said the convict, who is now 20, had already been handed over to an NGO and would remain in its custody for six months under police protection.

Earlier today, his lawyer A.P. Singh said he did not know "where he (convict) is and what he is doing. Delhi police are not talking to me.... The police let me talk to him just a few days back when they shifted him."

The lawyer also wrote to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, seeking security for the convict in his hometown, Badaun.

The letter says the convict's family is on the brink of starvation and that he is expected to be its only earning member when he returns home. "He was the only male earning member of the family and has been working to earn his livelihood since he was nine years old in dhaba, hotel...."

The lawyer also wrote that the boy had faced "unnatural offences" from his employers.

He now wants to earn his livelihood through hard work with "honesty and integrity" but fears a threat to his life from people "who do not believe in law and order...."

Although the juvenile has completed his sentence, the family of the victim and the public do not seem satisfied, the letter said.

"That the case was very sensational and highlighted in all over India as well as all over the world and number of people's/ public persons, students, young boys and girls of all caste and religion... participated in demonstrations... and they wanted justice by hook or by crook," it said.

The letter was sent to Akhilesh Yadav with copies marked to the Union home minister and the chairpersons of the NHRC and the child welfare board.