Rape accused applies for BA (Hons) in DU

New Delhi: A 20-year-old gang rape accused lodged in Tihar Jail is trying to get admission in BA Sanskrit (honours) course in Delhi University though the varsity has denied him admission citing his low scores.

According to DU authorities, two constables of Delhi Police have approached them on different occasions to seek admission for the man who scored 40 percent marks in his 12th standard. However, Delhi University in writing has denied admission to the boy on the grounds that his scores are too low and do not meet the minimum cut-off for any college. The accused identified as Badal, is a resident of Palam village and has been lodged in Tihar Jail for about two months after a minor girl (15) lodged a complaint at Palam village police station, alleging she was raped by him and his friend at a hotel.

He has been arrested under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and is currently under trial. According to police officials, Badal has sought admission in BA Sanskrit (honours) in different colleges including Satyawati, PGDAV, Rajdhani and Zakir Hussain.

"Badal was recently denied bail and since then he is looking for one way or the other to come out of jail. The interim bail to seek admission is nothing but yet another desperate effort by the gang rape accused to come out of jail," said a police officer working on the case.

The officer added that since the authorities knew that he might try to mislead them, so the Additional Sessions Judge Rajrani Mitra instructed Delhi Police to first confirm with the DU authorities if the accused had cleared the cut-off criteria before deciding on the interim bail. Vikas Pahwa, a senior advocate, said the boy can seek admission in any university and in case he meets the admission criteria the university will have to provide him admission.