New Delhi: Expressing concern about the rise in cases where gangs and hardened criminals deploy children to carry out crimes, Delhi High Court dismissed an anticipatory bail plea. The high court said such criminals were using children as a “weapon” to escape penal action and refused to grant anticipatory bail to a woman accused of trafficking a child and engaging him in illicit liquor sale.
In a recent order, Justice Girish Kathpalia said the exploitation of children in the commission of crimes was increasing day by day. Rejecting the plea for protection from arrest, the high court said the woman’s custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth whether more children were trafficked for such purposes and to get to the root of the crime. “Grant of anticipatory bail in a case where a child was exploited in commission of crimes would send a very wrong signal to society.
Exploitation of children in commission of crimes is increasing day by day. Children are now often being used as a weapon by hardened criminals to escape penal action,” the high court observed. “I do not find it a fit case to grant anticipatory bail to the applicant,” Justice Kathpalia noted. The woman was alleged to have trafficked a child from her native village and got him employed in the sale of illicit liquor in Delhi. Police registered an FIR after a close relative of the accused was seen selling illicit liquor along with the boy. Seeking relief, the accused contended that there was nothing to suggest that she brought the boy to Delhi for the sale of illicit liquor. She also argued that there was no material to connect her to the alleged liquor sale. On its part, Delhi Police opposed her anticipatory bail plea, arguing that the investigation revealed that the accused was actively involved in the illicit liquor sale racket and even received money in the process.
