India lawmakers lower age for minors to be tried as adults for serious crimes to 16 from 18

NEW DELHI – Indian lawmakers have voted to lower to 16 from 18 the age at which a person can be tried as an adult for heinous crimes.

The changes made Tuesday to the existing juvenile law follow the anger over the release of a minor convicted in a fatal 2012 gang rape who served the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.

The man, now an adult, was released Sunday. He was short of his 18th birthday when he and five other men brutally raped a 23-year-old young woman on board a moving bus in the heart of the Indian capital.

The amended law needs to be signed by India's president before it becomes a law.