PESHAWAR, Sept 10: The Juvenile Court, Peshawar, has directed the local police here not to produce juvenile offenders in handcuffs before any of the courts.
The court presided over by the district and sessions judge, Ziauddin Khattak, also ruled that under section 83 of the Criminal Procedure Code a child offender below 12 years of age could not be indicted if he had not attained sufficient maturity.
The observations were given by the presiding officer in a case of a minor boy of 10, Saifullah Khan, who was arrested on charges of drug trafficking. The court directed the police, accompanying the boy, to treat all the juvenile offenders with respect as most of them were not mature enough to understand the gravity of the crime they had committed.
The court observed that under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, no person below the age of 18 could be handcuffed. Moreover, the court also observed that after the promulgation of the said ordinance no other court could hear cases of juvenile offenders except a juvenile court.
The boy, Saifullah, resident of Kajori (Khyber Agency) was arrested along with an adult, Jehangir Khan, by the officials of Gulbahar police station on Jan 7, 2002. From their custody the police had recovered eight kilograms of charas. The trial of both the suspects was pending before an additional sessions judge, who referred the case of Saifullah to the district and sessions judge, as under the said ordinance a juvenile could not be tried by the court with an adult.
The sessions judge in his capacity as presiding officer of the juvenile court took up for hearing the case and discharged the boy of the liability, observing that under section 83 of the CrPC no charge could be framed against him as he had not attained enough maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his conduct.
As the whereabouts of the family members of the accused were not known, therefore, the court sent him to the borstal institutions inside the Haripur prison. The court directed that if any of his relatives turned up he should be released on furnishing two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.