Bholu has maturity to understand alleged offence, says PGI report

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Gurugram, October 1

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in the Prince murder case today provided an attested copy of the repot of the board of psychiatrists of PGI, Rohtak, which revealed that Bholu, as on today, has the maturity to understand the alleged offence, but no valid conclusion could be drawn.

Due to many inconsistencies in Bholu’s old reports and assessments, no valid conclusion could be drawn as to what would be his state of mind at the time of the crime, the psychiatrists said in the report. The JJB has fixed October 3 for the next hearing in the matter.

Prince murder: no evidence of mental illness

• As present, there is no evidence of physical, mental illness or intellectual impairment. He has sufficient maturity to understand the consequence of alleged offence
• There have been a number of inconsistencies in the documented information and the current interviews, so no valid conclusions can be drawn
• There is no valid test with reasonable scientific certainty that can determine medical capacity and maturity to understand the consequences of the offence

Sushil Tekriwal, counsel for the victim, said the board of psychiatrists in the report said Bholu had no mental illness as on today, which indicated that he had sufficient knowledge of the capacity, capability and the physiological power to understand the consequence of the offence he had committed. “However, this is the commentary of today’s assessment. We have no mechanism scientifically and medically even otherwise to say that this was the situation retrospectively. So we cannot assess this child/juvenile in the then given circumstance,” the report further reads.

“During the interaction with the child, he has been escaping, diverting and misguiding. As part of opening this medical report, the JJB has also had an interaction with the juvenile for almost two hours alone to make its part of the assessment. There are two formulas in the case — one is medical, for which the report has been submitted, while second is the judicial one. It will now be decided by the court on Monday whether Bholu trailed an as adult or a juvenile,” Tekriwal said.

As per the psychological test report, Bholu’s IQ assessment is 92, which fall in the category of average intelligence and zero intellectual impairment. His current personality assessment shows signs of low frustration tolerance, fatigue, fretfulness, less emotionally stable and easily offended, soft-minded, apprehensive, self-condemning, insecure, anxious and full of forebodings and anxiety. He is described as aggressive, courageous, independent and quick. He has a childlike tendency to worry about difficulties.

“As present, there is no evidence of physical, mental illness or intellectual impairment and he has sufficient maturity and ability to understand the consequence of alleged offence. There have been a number of inconsistencies in the documented information and the current interviews, so no valid conclusions can be drawn. There is no valid test or examination with reasonable scientific (medical/ psychiatrist) certainty that can retrospectively determine the medical capacity, maturity and ability to understand the consequences of the offence at the time of the commission of the offence as required by the court,” read the opinion of psychiatrists given in the report.

After Prince’s murder on September 8, 2017, a bus driver was made the prime suspect and was sent to jail. But when th eCBI took charge of the investigation, “Bholu”, then a Class XI student of the same school, was found allegedly to have killed the boy and was taken in custody.