X JUVENILE Vs. UNION TERRITORY OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition under Sec. 102 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 ["the Act of 2015"], filed by "X" Juvenile through his father S. Trilok Singh, is directed against an order dtd. 25/5/2023 passed by the Court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Samba ["the Appellate Court"], whereby it has upheld the order dtd. 4/1/2023 passed by the Principal Juvenile Justice Board, Jakh, Samba ["the Board"] on the bail plea of the juvenile.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts leading to the filing of this revision petition are that on 24/9/2022, a written complaint was filed by one Jasvinder Singh resident of Vijaypur against Vikas Salathia, Vasudev alias Shunu and Rohit alias Makhan for attempting to murder his brother Balwinder Singh S/o Harpal Singh R/o Vijaypur, Samba. It was alleged that on 24/9/2022 at about 1100 hrs, Balwinder Singh along with one Sourab Baloria were going towards Supwal on Motorcycle and when they reached near Barian near Hanuman Road, above named accused persons hit the motorcycle with unknown vehicle due to which Balwinder Singh and Sourab Baloria riding the motorcycle fell down. The accused then shot at Balwinder with an intention to kill him. They even attacked Balwinder Singh with sharp-edge weapon ("Toka"). Balwinder Singh got seriously injured and was referred to a Hospital in Amritsar for further treatment. On this information, FIR No.239/2022 under Ss. 307, 323, 34 IPC and 3/4/25 Arms Act was registered and investigation was entrusted to ASI Ibrar-Ul-Haq Inchare Police Post, Supwal.

(3.) During the course of investigation, accused Rohit, Vasudev alias Shunu and Vikas Salathia were arrested in the case and were subjected to sustained interrogation. As per the police investigating the matter, accused Rohit and Vasudev confessed their involvement and on their identification, weapons of offence i.e. One Pistol and one Toka were recovered. It seems that from the further investigation in the matter and recording of statements of the eye witnesses including the eye witness Sourab Baloria, it came to fore that apart from Rohit, Vasudev, Atul Choudhary, Avtar Singh, Mohd. Ismail, the petitioner herein "X" Juvenile was also involved in the instant case. Accordingly, the remaining accused, too, were arrested. Since the petitioner was juvenile at the time of commission of crime, he was, thus, produced before the Board and on the orders of the Board, the petitioner was sent to the Observation/Remand Home, R.S.Pura, Jammu.