Motihari, Feb. 7: Juvenile police officers were deployed in all 47 police stations in East Champaran today to deal with offences involving minors.

After inaugurating a training programme for the juvenile police officers, superintendent of police (SP) Ganesh Kumar made them aware of the guidelines received from the director-general of police (CID – weaker section) Arvind Pandey.

Kumar said a juvenile police officer’s primary objective would be to look into matters related to juvenile offences and safeguard children from injustice.

“Forty-four police officers of the total 47, who have been selected for the purpose, were imparted training by CID inspector (weaker section) Prabhunath Upadhyaya, Sunil Kumar of Unicef and Prem Kumar instructor of NGO Azad Bachpan,” Kumar added.

According to the SP, all police officers present at the training camp were given information on juvenile offences, related laws and methods to curb the menace. Deputy SP (headquarters) Mohammed Mokim was also present at the camp.

Asked about the average number of juvenile cases reported from different police stations in the district every year, the East Champaran SP said: “The number of juvenile cases could not be ascertained at the time of deploying the juvenile police officers. The work of classification is usually done in course of investigation and submission of the final report in court.”

A senior criminal lawyer of the district Bar association, K.L. Prasad told The Telegraph: “Nearly 633 juvenile cases are pending for disposal at the trial stage.”