Gujarat High Court Grants Bail To 16-Yr-Old Accused Of Committing Unnatural Sex With 13-Yr-Old

The Gujarat High Court has granted bail to a 16 years old boy, accused of forcibly committing unnatural sex (sodomy) with a minor boy, aged about 13 years.

Keeping in view Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice Act, a Bench of Justice Samir Dave granted bail to the accused while restraining him from entering the society where the alleged victim resides. In doing so, the Bench allowed the criminal revision application filed under Section 102 of the JJ Act to quash the order passed by the Sessions Court and the JJ Board, refusing bail.

Section 12 provides that when a child is apprehended for allegedly committing any offence, he/she shall be released on bail with or without surety or placed under the supervision of a probation officer or under the care of any person.

The Applicant herein, aged 16 years and 8 months, is alleged to have taken Complainant's minor son, aged 13 years, to a terrace and to have forcibly committed sodomy. He also allegedly threatened the victim of death in the event the incident was disclosed to anyone.

Accordingly, an FIR was filed under Sections 377, 323, 506(1) of Indian Penal Code & U/S. 3(A), 4 & 18 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, and the Applicant was arrested in April 2022 and sent to a Child Observation Home.