Despite Proof of Age, Dalit Minor Forced to Rot in UP Adult Jail
After being arrested during Dalit protests, a 14-year-old has been lodged at the Meerut jail for three months now.
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Video Editor: Vivek Gupta
Cameraperson: Aishwarya S Iyer
"For determining age through a medical exam there is a board that’s constituted – an additional headache. We don't have any documents in place which can help us prove his age in court and as long as we don't have them, he will remain in adult jail," advocate Ashok Kumar told The Quint while we sat in one of the rooms of the betel-stained corridors, frequented by lawyers, at the Meerut Bar Association.
Kumar was referring to his client, 14-year-old Sachin's family, one of the many Dalit boys arrested by the Meerut police on 2 April during the countrywide protests against the dilution of the ST/SC Act. The top court observed that the law was being misused by the community, thereby protecting people from immediate arrest.
The dispute here, however, is Sachin's age. His family has been going around meeting police officials to show Sachin's documents, but they allege that they “were abused and asked to leave”. His documents include his Aadhaar card and an online copy of his Class 10 marksheet from the UP state board. His age according to them is 14 years and eight months. Despite being a minor, he has been languishing in a prison meant for adults for the last two-and-a-half months, bearing with adult under-trials and convicts.
Could Sachin Have Got Bail Earlier?
Sachin's father, Dharamveer, has been wandering about with his son’s online marksheet since the results were announced on 29 April. The fact that Sachin scored 44 percent in his Class 10 board exams means nothing to his father.
There are clear guidelines mentioned in the Juvenile Justice Act to ascertain age which can be found in Section 94 part (ii) of the Act. The first method involves submitting a high school certificate. It reads as follows: “The date of birth certificate from the school, or the matriculation or equivalent certificate from the concerned examination Board.”
While it is true that an online copy of the marksheet will not be permissible in court, the Juvenile Justice board accepts it. The Quint reached out to two senior practising lawyers who specialise in child rights to verify if Sachin's family had the evidence they needed. According to them, firstly the lawyer should have submitted the marksheet to the board after which it would become incumbent upon the board to prove its authenticity and ascertain Sachin's age, or the lawyer could have got it authenticated by the UP board officially and submitted it in court for authentication.
When The Quint called Ashok Kumar to doubly check if he knew, he seemed unaware, adding that an online copy wouldn't be accepted by court and insisted 'that he was doing whatever the family wanted.'
What Did Sachin's Family Want?
The Quint travelled to Kaliyagarhi in Meerut to visit Sachin's home and was received by his brother, 30-year-old Krishan, who works as a contractor. Opening up on his younger brother’s arrest, Krishan recollected the dreadful afternoon of 2 April.
Krishan, clad in a mauve banyan and shorts, says Sachin was on his way to meet his tuition teacher when he was picked up by the police. He recalls how he went running from police station to police station to try and get his brother released. "I took his documents and went to the police station. There I met an inspector and told him, “My brother is young, 14-years-old, he went to meet the teacher to speak about tuition. But he didn't listen to me, abused me instead and made me leave. He said 'If you say anything else, you will also be jailed,'” a pained Sachin recalled.
His 62-year-old father, who tried to help his son out of the prison, says he was abused as well.
His pleas of presenting documents, that his brother was a juvenile, fell on deaf ears at the police station. "The police wrote his age down incorrectly (as a 20-year-old). We tried to tell them but they abused us. No one is listening to us," Dharamveer said. The lawyer also confirms that Sachin's age has been documented as 20-years-old.
After being arrested they have regularly gone to visit Sachin in jail, "If we cry in front of him he will cry more, so as a compulsion we have to behave like everything will be alright. I keep telling him, 'Don't cry, we will figure something out.'"
When this reporter asked Dharamveer why his son was locked up alongside criminals in jail in spite of being a minor, he said, "He (Ashok Kumar) said that it will take time from the other route so let him be here itself and he will get bail fast. He said it would take one-and-a-half months to transfer him to the juvenile home and an additional 15-16 days to get him out. So then we said wherever he stays, the juvenile home or prison, we want him to get bail at the earliest."
'Bail a Matter of Right' for a Juvenile
The Quint spoke to senior lawyer and child rights activist, Vikram Srivastava, founder of Independent Thought who said, "The Juvenile Justice Act being a child sensitive law provides bail as a matter of right. And if a child has been placed in an adult jail it is fundamentally flawed since day one. If the person is below 18, around 15 then that is not the right place to be in."
He goes on to say the Act clearly states that a child can never be lodged in a police station or jail.
Senior Meerut police officials told us they cannot do anything till Sachin's documents are submitted in court. They went on to say that a preliminary medical test declared his age as 20. When asked about the specifics of the medical test, he said it had “something to do with bones and that he knew nothing more beyond it.”
Ashok Kumar, who we had met at in the dimly lit room in the Meerut Bar Association asked this reporter, "There are criminals in the Juvenile Justice Board as well. With small kids there are so many atrocities there, so how can you say he is safe?"
Few kilometers away, in the small room that opens up to kids who are seen heading home after a day’s share of games, Krishan said, "Our lawyer has applied in Allahabad, saying he will be out in 14-15 days. If he doesn't come out we will change the lawyer."
The family continues to believe Kumar’s word. His bail, which almost seemed likely to come through on several occasions, now looks elusive with Sachin spending his third consecutive month in jail.
(This is a developing story. As of 19 June Sachin was still lodged in the adult jail, according to their lawyer.)
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