About an adolescent girl who was imprisoned for 14 years

Revathi is back home, 

but questions remain unanswered

By P P Baburaj

After serving 14 years in jail, Revathi is now back in her matrimonial home at Puthukad village in Erode district with her 9 month-old female baby, Mukta. But was her life imprisonment justified?

Illiterate Revathi was just 16 years old when she was arrested for the offence of murder at Bengaluru about 14 years ago. She should have got the benefit of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 according to which a person below 18 years is a juvenile. She should have been before the Juvenile Justice Board for inquiry. But things did not happen as per the criminal justice administration.

Her age was stated as 18 years in the FIR and she was chargesheeted accordingly by the Bengaluru police. Orphaned and illiterate adolescent Revathi hardly knew about her rights or any other legal provisions and the consequences. After the trial, she was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Court. There was no competent counsel to defend on her behalf.

Born in a village in Erode district of Tamil Nadu, Revathi could not continue her education in the primary school after her parents passed away. Seeing the 9-year old girl without anyone to take care of, a distant relative took her to Chennai to place her in a house as domestic help. However, after 5 years, she had to move from there to work in another house at Bengaluru. Revathi never expected a somersault in her life during the work in the garden city.

On a fine day after two years, a team arrived from Mumbai to Revathi’s employer’s house to strike a sexual trafficking deal. Overhearing their plan, Revathi made an attempt to flee from the house, but failed. When she resisted to cooperate, a woman, one of the traffickers assaulted her with a knife. Perturbed by this, Revathi grabbed the knife and stabbed the woman back which led to her death. Revathi did not hide anything and admitted all facts in the court.

Thus she was slapped with life imprisonment in Parappana Agrahara jail when she was just an adolescent. The youngest prisoner in the women’s cell!

Sankalpa, a repertoire initiated by Rangayana’s artiste Hulugappa Kattimani, was a platform for all prisoners including Revathi to vent their feelings. Much water flew under the bridge. Revathi picked up good Kannada, Hindi and Telugu. She acted in various plays in lead role including Bhishma Sahni’s ‘Madhavi’ and D S Chouale’s ‘Kasthurba’. During the theatre performances, she met another young actor Anburaj from Mysore jail. Both realised that they hailed from the same district and moreover, they are distant relatives. Soon, they got married when they were out on parole. Later, on Anburaj’s request, the jail department transferred her to Mysore jail. In the meantime, she finished a certificate course in Women Empowerment from Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Mysore, and other than courses in fashion designing and beauty parlour. Cute Muktha was born in jail 9 months ago.

I met her only two years ago in Mysore jail and realised that she was a juvenile when the offence was committed. She should have been detained in a Special Home under Juvenile Justice System for a maximum period of three years for her offence. But on contrary, she had already undergone 12 years of imprisonment.

Soon, we managed to collect her age certificate from her school in Erode district and confirmed her age as 16 years and 4 months at the time of offence committed. We filed a writ petition in Karnataka High Court through human rights activist lawyer Clifton Rozario for her release as she was a juvenile at the time of commission of the offence. However, we did not get a favourable order from the High Court division bench. Consequently, Revathi had to continue in the jail. Her husband Anburaj has been serving jail for the past 18 years. 

An appeal in the Supreme Court was definitely possible. However, Anburaj had an expectation that Revathi would be released on good conduct either on Independence Day or Republic Day. An appeal pending in the Supreme Court would mar the process of her release. Taking it into account, we gave up the idea of approaching the Supreme Court.

Now certain questions are really haunting us as far as Revathi’s life is concerned. The Juvenile Justice law is very clear that no person below 18 years shall be tried in adult court and sent to jail. The juvenile can raise his juvenility at any point of time, even after the sentence. In spite of these provisions, why Revathi was punished with 14 long years? Who will pay the cost of her lost childhood? Can the state return her childhood now? What about India’s commitment in 1992 to the United Nations on ensuring the rights of children? We realise that the words like child welfare, juvenile justice, child development etc are just jargons for officials and politicians and they have nothing to do with practical life. The department of Education or Women and Child Development was never bothered about her imprisonment for such a long time. NGOs too did not appear either!

Now the question of long delay of her freedom within the prison walls should haunt our conscience. Is not our government liable to pay her a compensation for her illegal detention all these years? Haven’t we broken and spoiled her childhood, education, hopes and dreams? How are we going to compensate them? How long she and her daughter have to wait for Anburaj to join them?

(Baburaj is a lawyer and former member of Juvenile Justice Board)