Kendrapara, Nov. 1: Three persons accused of being involved in an attempt to rape and murder a 15-year-old girl at Kharinashi village on July 28 were declared juvenile delinquents by the district and sessions judge here.

All the three teenagers, who were lodged in the district jail, will now be shifted to a juvenile home and face trial as juveniles. If convicted, they could spend a maximum of three years in prison.

The girl was allegedly set ablaze by the three after they failed to rape her. The badly-burnt victim succumbed to her injuries on August 8 at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

The incident had triggered widespread reactions across the state as there were allegations that the victim died on her way to Bhubaneswar. She was to be flown to Delhi. Angry protesters had attacked the residence of the health minister. District and sessions judge Bijaya Ketan Mohanty today endorsed their juvenile status on the strength of their school admission records and ordered for fresh trial of the case in the district juvenile justice board.

The court also ordered for shifting of the under-trials from Kendrapara jail to a reformatory home. The court rejected the police claim of accused persons being major and disallowed the ossification test report. The bone-density test to determine the accused persons’ age is not required in the case as the school admission register throws ample light of their age, said defence counsel A.K. Senapati.

All the three accused persons will now be tried before the district juvenile board and, if convicted, will be sent to a juvenile detention centre.

According to the court verdict, the accused were not majors when they committed the crime. Despite the grave nature of the offence, they deserve a chance of reformation instead of punishment, said Bipin Behari Barik, member of district juvenile justice board.

Section 15(G) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act mandates that a juvenile aged between 16 and 18 years, if convicted of any offence, can be sent to a special home for three years at the most, and, thereafter, be released on probation. However, Section 16 of the Act also provides that a juvenile can only be kept at the special home till he attains 18 years of age and he cannot be sent to jail thereafter. This, in effect, results in his release, added Barik.