It had said juvenile was kept in same cell with Kashmiri militant.

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has hit out at the Intelligence Bureau for giving a religious colour to the case involving the juvenile involved in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape.

In its report, the IB said that three Muslim officers were supervising the welfare home when the juvenile and a Kashmiri juvenile accused in the Delhi High Court blast case were kept in the same cell, leading to the alleged radicalisation of the former and fear that he might join the militant ranks. The juvenile, according to a senior Delhi government official, is now being subjected to counselling “to reverse the damage, if any, caused by the alleged radicalisation”.

The Department of Women and Child Development of the Delhi government sent a terse report to the Union Home Ministry on October 31 saying, “Mentioning names of supervisory staff on religious lines is not fair and rather mischievous.”

When contacted for comment on Wednesday, however, Minister for Women and Child Development Sandeep Kumar chose not to comment on the matter “in line with a decision to not let the issue get communalised” but a senior government official from his office assured The Hindu that the “matter had been resolved.” The government official said Mr. Kumar had “discussed the matter at length” with the director of the facility at his office on Tuesday evening in view of the apprehensions expressed by the MHA.”

The report said that two of the Muslim officials named by the IB in its report had worked for a short span of time and three Hindu officials who have been there for several years were still there. Both juveniles were shifted to the same cell in September 2014, when none of the three Muslims officials was in charge. The Hindu has in its possession both the IB and Delhi government reports but is withholding the names of all the officials.

The IB in its report dated September 22, had said, “The juvenile convict in Nirbhaya gang-rape case came in contact with a Kashmiri juvenile militant who was arrested in August 2011, from Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir by the NIA in the Delhi HC blast case. Both of them are sharing the same cell at Juvenile Home (Majnu ka Tila) for the past 7-8 months… while the Nirbhaya juvenile was lodged in Kingsway Camp during December 2012, he was transferred to Majnu ka Tila home without assigning any specific reason after 2-3 months where the Kashmiri juvenile was already lodged.”

The Nirbhaya juvenile, now 19 years old, is slated to be released in December.

The IB report further said, “It may be mentioned that during this period, the supervision of the Juvenile Welfare Home was being done by a Superintendent and two welfare officers (all Muslims, names being withheld). Recently, another Superintendent has taken over charge. It may be desirable to separate the duo and provide the Nirbhaya juvenile with counselling to prevent him from joining militant ranks.”

A senior Home Ministry official said, “We have received the Delhi government’s report and it is under examination.”