Guwahati: Assam Police which operates one of the largest child-friendly policing programmes in the country on Monday revealed the name and address of an accused who was a minor.
The details of the minor were revealed on the official Twitter handle of the Guwahati Police. This minor who was accused of theft is a Child in Conflict with the law.
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Assam Police Sishu Mitra Programme is one of the largest Child-friendly Policing programmes in India. Assam Police runs this programme in collaboration with UTSAH, an Assam based CSO and UNICEF.
Under this programme training and several other programmes have been rolled out since 2018.
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However, non-compliance to child-friendly procedures by a police system, that runs a Sishu Mitra Programme, puts a question mark on the effectiveness of this programme.
Section 74(1) of the Juvenile Justice Act deals with the disclosure of the identity of children.
Under this act, any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or audio-visual media or other forms of communication regarding any enquiry or investigation or judicial procedure, shall not disclose the name, address or school or any other particular that may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with the law or a child in need of care and protection or a child victim or witness of a crime, involved in such matter.
Section 74(3) of the Act makes disclosure of identity an offence that is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 6 months or a fine which may extend to 2 Lakhs Rupees.
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However, the Guwahati Police on its Twitter handle disclosed the identity of a 15-year-old minor who was accused of stealing.
It may be mentioned that Assam Police had received many recognitions for its child-friendly initiatives.
The tweet disclosing the identity of the child was deleted after it was reported to the senior officials of the police department. But, the post was live for more than four hours.
After NENOW contacted Commissioner of Police, Harmeet Singh, he said that he has no idea about the tweet.