NEW DELHI — A juvenile court ruled Monday that a suspect in the fatal gang rape of a young woman in New Delhi last month was a juvenile at the time of the attack. A lawyer present in the court said a magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board announced the decision after going over documents presented to the court by officials of the suspect's elementary school that indicated that he was under 18 years of age at the time of the Dec. 16 attack. The lawyer could not be named because he was not authorized to brief media. The lawyer said that the suspect's school documents showed him to be about six months short of his 18th birthday at the time of the attack. The suspect did not possess a birth certificate — a common occurrence in India where many babies are born at home and not in a hospital. In such cases, school records are often used as proof of age or identity. The suspect, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because of his age, could face three years in a reform facility if he is convicted as a juvenile. A conviction as an adult could have led to his execution. The ruling shocked the victim's father, who watched the news flash across his television screen. “A sudden current ran through my body in disbelief. I can't believe this,” the father told Reuters. “How can they declare him a minor? Do they not see what they did?” The teenager has not yet been formally charged because police were hoping he would be declared an adult so they could include him in the main trial of his five co-accused. Since the horrific attack of the 23-year-old victim, women say they feel under siege and are so frightened they have structured their entire lives to protect themselves from harassment and attack. Many travel in groups, go out of their homes only during the day and carry sharp objects to stab men who grope them on public buses. Those who are raped are often blamed by their families for the attack. If they report the crime, the police often refuse to file a report or try to get the victim and attacker to reach a settlement. If it reaches court, the case can drag on for years in the overburdened justice system. — Agencies
