The Allahabad High Court recently granted bail to a 16-year-old boy accused of killing his mother with his father’s licensed pistol after she refused to let him play the mobile game PUBG.
A single bench of Justice Shree Prakash Singh believes that the accused should be granted bail after considering that the accused is a juvenile and that there is no eye witness to the said incident.
“The revisionist was 16 years 8 months and 7 days at the date of the incident and that is evident from the impugned order of the Juvenile Justice Board. Thus, it is established that the revisionist is a juvenile…Further, so far as the merit of the case is concerned, the FIR has been lodged by the grandmother of the revisionist and she is not an eye witness. The other witnesses are also not the eye witnesses in the instant matter and only on hearsay basis,” the order reads.
The single bench was hearing a revision petition filed by the juvenile-accused against the decision of the Additional District & Sessions Judge, POCSO Court, Lucknow, which had denied his bail application. He was charged with murder in accordance with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code 1860.
In June 2022, the teenager killed his mother after she forbade him from playing online games such as PUBG. The deceased’s body was discovered two days after the incident.
The bench directed his release on bail after being convinced that his release would not bring him into contact with any unknown criminal or expose him to moral, physical, or psychological danger.
While granting bail, the Court also noted that the juvenile-accused has been in a child protection home since June 8, 2022, and that his father has promised to keep an eye on his son.
