Mumbai gang-rape: new embarrassment for police, a suspect is a minor

 The Mumbai Police has been credited with locating and arresting in less than 70 hours the five suspects accused of gang-raping a young photographer in the heart of Mumbai last week.To help recreate the crime scene for the police, the men were taken today to Shakti Mills, the deserted area where they allegedly took turns to rape the 22-year-old and tied up her male colleague with belts to keep him from helping her.
The extensive investigation has been studded with controversies.  The first suspect to be caught a day after the sexual assault, is a juvenile, according to his birth certificate.

mumbai_gangrape_protests_new_295 When he was arrested, his grandmother furnished a document where his date of birth seemed to have been altered.  Now, a record from the municipal corporation corroborates that the suspect was born in 1997.  Since he is 16-years-old, he has to be tried by a juveniles court, and if convicted, he will face a maximum of three years in a reform home.
The police had vehemently contested his family’s claims that he is under-age, declaring him to be 19.  Officers handling the case have revealed his name, a violation of the law.There have been other lapses that have emerged in recent days.One of the suspects, it turns out, was an informant used regularly by the police, a point of considerable embarrassment, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh admitted yesterday.

The police chief delivered another sticking point in an interview to NDTV, when he suggested that moral policing could be an effective deterrent for crimes against women.