I want to forget that night: Juvenile rapist tells officials

New Delhi: As the country remembered the braveheart who was brutally gangraped on December 16 exactly a year ago, the juvenile who escaped with lighter punishment after being convicted in the case spent the entire day watching reports flashed by the media on the incident.

"Why are they (media) reminding me of that incident again and again. I want to forget that night," the youth, who is now 18 and fears that he will be killed once he is out of the correction home, told officials who interact with him.

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While four others were awarded death penalty in the case by a trial court, he was convicted by the Juvenile Justice Board and remanded in three years at a special reform home in Majnu Ka Tilla.

The juvenile wants to move ahead and forget the fateful night. He has been kept in a separate quarter where he has a television all to himself and indoor games along with other basic amenities.

He is not allowed to mix with other children, the officials told PTI on Monday. According to the officials, the juvenile gets emotional when security guards tell him about the reports that get published in newspapers about him.

Though in the beginning, he had accepted the charge that he was involved in the gang rape, but now he denies his involvement. "He denies his involvement in the crime and expresses concern for his parents who he claims are very poor," officials said.

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"He is showing positive change," counsellors who spend time with him said. He has learnt tailoring and has enrolled in cooking and guitar classes. One of the officials even termed him as "one of the good boys in the home."

"Initially he was enrolled in the vocational training programme on tailoring in which he developed quite an interest. He longs to go back to his native village in Uttar Pradesh and open up his own shop.

"He has an inclination towards mathematics and is learning English alphabets now. He has also been enrolled in vocational cooking class and has learnt to prepare 'namak para' and 'matthi' (snacks)," the official said.

Officials said that he underwent surgery in December last year after he complained of appendicitis. The juvenile who has completed one year in the home will be freed by December 2015.

The victim's parents had moved the Supreme Court on November 30 seeking directions to put him on trial by a criminal court by quashing a law which bans such prosecution of juveniles.