Juveniles who escaped from a north Delhi observation home recently, used seemingly innocuous objects to threaten guards
Juveniles who escaped from a north Delhi observation home recently, used seemingly innocuous objects to threaten guards
What's the most adventurous thing you have ever done with an electric bulb? Probably changing it. But, Delhi's juvenile offenders have been using the humble lightbulb as a weapon for some time now, to make good their escapes from the observation home in Mukherjee Nagar.
How secure? Several inmates of this observation home in north Delhi
have escaped many times in the past few years. file photo
Sumiran, 17 (name changed), considered the gang leader of these young criminals has used some innovative techniques over the years to escape from the juvenile home. The latest incident happened on May 16, the seventh time for Sumiran. When MID-DAY investigated the reason behind this continuing success story, the answers that came out were quite startling.
"They take the aluminum cap of the electric bulb, crush it and then they sharpen it by rubbing it against a blunt surface till it converts into a blade. They are also capable of turning trouser buttons, belt buckles etc into blades.
They often use these weapons to threaten the guards. In many cases they deliberately injure themselves with these blades to find an easy escape during medical treatment. In short, they use anything they can lay their hands upon at the juvenile home to their advantage. They have been known to use metal pipe in water taps as a weapon," an employee of the juvenile home said on conditions of anonymity.
The guards at this juvenile home are retired servicemen, aged between 50 and 60 years. They can't overpower 17-year-old boys with their bare hands, especially when they have numbers on their side. Certainly not when the kids are armed and dangerous.
"There are 21 guards in one shift. The total number of juveniles is 45. But still we are unable to handle them because as per rules we can't use any kind of weapons or lathis to tackle them. And when they unite to escape it's almost impossible to stop them," the employee said.
"Last time when Sumiran escaped along with 37 children, they used rods and started beating a guard. Then they went out through the front gate," he said.
The government agencies have now woken up to the menace. The Delhi Women and Child Development Minister
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Kiran Walia visited the juvenile home.
Some of the boys returned on May 17, but Sumiran is still absconding. Sources said that he forced several boys to escape with him.
"Sumiran would threaten the rest of the boys with his blades. Some boys who didn't want to escape, were forced to run, but later surrendered themselves," the employee at the juvenile home added.
| Wait in futility |
| A 35-year-old woman from Jahangirpuri in north Delhi, who had been allegedly robbed and raped by 4 boys on May 2, had arrived at the juvenile home on Monday for a test identification parade of one of the accused. However, after waiting for several hours, she was finally informed that the only accused who had been arrested was among the escapees.u00a0 "At around 3.30 am on May 2, four boys broke into my house, took 60,000 rupees, jewellery and a mobile phone. Then 3 of them took me to another room and raped me," she said. The woman has handed over a copy of her FIR to Delhi Women and Child Development Minister, Kiran Walia. MiD-DAY too has a copy ofu00a0 the FIR. |
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