Dec 16 gangrape accused wants Sheila as defence witness: The defence counsel in the December 16 Delhi gangrape case on Wednesday requested the fast track court to summon Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and 13 others as defence witnesses. Dayan Krishnan, public prosecutor in the case, objected to calling Dikshit as a witness on the ground that it was a “publicity hankering exercise” and an attempt to “play politics”. “My learned friend just wants to make news…I request the court to turn down this application,” Krishnan said. A P Singh, counsel representing accused Akshay and Vinay, told the court that there was a controversy surrounding the victim’s statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the manner in which it was recorded. He said he wanted Dikshit’s testimony in the case to clarify the issue. In December last year, SDM Usha Chaturvedi had claimed that three senior police officers had interfered with the recording of the victim’s statement. Dikshit had written to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, demanding a probe into the matter. Krishnan told the court that calling Dikshit was redundant since Chaturvedi had been extensively questioned over the issue and had testified on the authenticity of the victim’s statement before the court. Singh presented a list of 14 witnesses and eight documents to Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna on behalf of Akshay. Vivek Sharma, counsel representing accused Pawan, presented a list of seven witnesses to appear on behalf of his client. The 23-year-old paramedic student who was gangraped aboard a moving bus on December 16, died in a Singapore hospital 13 days later. One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, was found dead in Tihar jail on March 11. The minor accused in the case was tried by the Juvenile Justice Board and verdict in his case is likely to be delivered on July 25. A fast track court at Saket is trying the case of the four accused — Akshay, Pawan, Vinay and Mukesh. So far, all of them have claimed innocence and said they were not present in the bus on that night.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 07:06:24 +0000
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