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

Published December 22, 2015

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.

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