Search the Internet           Tips

Chenchu to appeal against verdict
in missionary murder case

Chenchu, the 13-year-old tribal boy sentenced to 14-year detention by a juvenile court in the Australian missionary Graham Staines' murder case, will appeal against the verdict, his counsel said.

The appeal petition on behalf of Chenchu, alias Sudarshan Hansdah, would be filed in Orissa High Court after the puja vacation, his counsel Gyana Acharya told PTI in Bhubaneswar Wednesday.

The sentence of 14-year detention to a 13-year-old is unprecedented in Indian legal history, he said.

Chenchu had been held guilty under sections 22 (1) and 22 (2) of the Juvenile Justice Act read with sections 120 (b), 147, 148, 149, 435, 436 and 302 of the IPC for his involvement in the offence of unlawful assembly, murder, causing murder by mischief of setting fire to two vehicles, in one of which the missionary and his two minor sons were asleep on the night of January 22, 1999.

The counsel said, immediately after the judgment was pronounced on Saturday by Sukumar Sahu, special CBI judge-cum principal magistrate of the juvenile court, and was agreed to by the other member of the bench Gajendra Mohapatra, the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Chenchu broke down.

The boy was taken to the special observation home at Berhampur after the court order, official sources said.

He would be shifted to the juvenile home at Angul in a day or two as ordered by the court, they added.

PTI

ALSO SEE:
Lifer for 13-year-old Chenchu in Staines case
Interview: 'I wanted to teach Staines a lesson, not kill him'
Special: Staines' wife, daughter try to rebuild their lives around his work

Tell us what you think of this report