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News Desk

The Statesman

Publication Date : 18-01-2013

A Delhi court yesterday committed the trial of the 23-year-old paramedical student’s gangrape-cum-murder case to one of the five fast-track sessions courts exclusively set up after the incident to deal with cases of crimes against women. 

The fast-track court, which is expected to conduct the trial on a daily basis, will hear the case on January 21 when arguments on framing of charges will take place.

Conducting the proceedings in-camera, Metropolitan Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal transferred the case to the fast-track court at Saket courts’ complex, headed by Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna. This court was inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India. The MM’s court had earlier fixed today for scrutiny of the documents which has been completed.

Earlier yesterday, the Metropolitan Magistrate supplied documents related to the case to all the five accused in this case. The defence counsel said they have also received the e-challan copy of the charge-sheet and all the documents related to the case had also been supplied to them. They also claimed the court had rejected the prosecution’s plea for bringing the accused in handcuffs.

V K Anand, defence lawyer of the main accused in the case, Ram Singh, the driver, said he wanted the trial to move out of the Capital alleging the Delhi Police are biased against the accused. This claim came after the court committed the trial to the fast-track court. Anand said they would move the Supreme Court to shift the trial to another part of the country as his client would not get a fair trial in Delhi.

Reportedly, the lawyer has sought the  trial to be moved anywhere except Uttar Pradesh, where the girl came from.

The defence lawyers, while scrutinising documents submitted by the Delhi police along with its 600-page charge-sheet, also claimed some crucial statements are illegible and have asked for new copies.

The lawyer for another accused, Mukesh Singh, alleged his client was beaten up by police, and added he had been falsely indicted for the crime because he came from a poor family and police were under pressure to show results.

The five accused--bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh--were produced before the court. The case of the sixth accused, a minor, is being heard by a Juvenile Justice Board.