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Court raps police over rights of juvenile delinquents

By IANS,

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court has sought an explanation from Delhi Police following a complaint that they were forcing juveniles facing criminal charges to sign self-incriminating statements during investigation.

Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar converted a letter written by an NGO into a public interest petition and issued a notice to the police, seeking a reply by Jan 7.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the complaint, the bench earlier this week asked Delhi Police to stop this practice.

The NGO, Voluntary Child Rights, in its letter alleged that the children in the juvenile homes have often complained that the police were forcing some of them “who were in conflict with the law to make incriminating statements”.

The organisation alleged that in the case of juveniles accused of serious offences, the police were forcibly obtaining their signatures after recording their self-incriminating statements and attaching the copy of the statements along with the charge sheet.