Bail of Children arrested

(1) When a person apparently under the age of eighteen years is arrested for a non-bailable offence and cannot be brought forthwith before a court, the officer in charge of the police station to which such person is brought may in any case and shall unless the offence is one of culpable homicide or is an offence punishable with death or transportation, release him on bail if sufficient security is forthcoming unless, for reasons to be recorded in writing, the officer believes that such release would bring him into association with any reputed criminal or expose him to moral danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice: Provided that where a girl apparently under the age of sixteen years is arrested the officer in charge of a police station who has made the arrest or before whom the girl is brought shall release her at once if any person who is a relative of the girl or a society or institution of the same religious persuasion as the girl, who in his opinion is a sufficient and suitable surety, enters into a bond for such sum of money as the officer considers sufficient to produce her before the court or to appear in her stead if required at the Police Station. (2) For the purpose of this section the expression “relative” means parents, grand parents, brothers, Sisters, uncles, aunts and first cousins.