New Delhi, Jul 11 (IANS): The Juvenile Justice Board Thursday deferred till July 25 its ruling on whether to try an accused in the Dec 16 gangrape case as an adult or a juvenile.

If the accused, who was aged 17-and-half years at the time of the crime, is tried as a juvenile, he would face a maximum sentence of three years, including the time already spent in custody. He turned 18 last month.

The family of the victim as well as social groups have been demanding that the youth should be tried and punished as an adult in view of the gravity of his crime. As an adult, he could be sentenced to death or get the life term.

A 23-year-old woman was gangraped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus in Delhi Dec 16 last year. She later died in a Singapore hospital Dec 29. Six people, including the juvenile, were arrested in the case.

While accused Ram Singh, Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were tried by a fast track court in Saket in south Delhi, the juvenile's case was heard by the Juvenile Justice Board.

The trial against Ram Singh has been abated after he was found dead, hanging in his cell in Tihar Jail here.