Delhi gangrape: Accused admits to driving bus, blames co-accused for rape

Mukesh, an accused in the Delhi gang-rape case, today admitted in court that he was driving the bus in which the victim and her friend were picked up on the night of 16 December, 2012. He, however, denied raping the victim, attacking her friend or robbing them of their belongings. Mukesh is the brother of Ram Singh, an accused in case who was found hanging in his prison cell in the high security Tihar Jail on the morning of 11 March. Mukesh told the court on the night of 16 December, the victim and her friend were picked up from the Munirka bus stop after they hailed the bus he was driving. He told court that on the night of 16 December he had gone with his nephew on a cycle to pick up his brother Ram Singh from Munirka and was driving the bus because his brother was drunk. “My brother used to drive the bus daily, but on that day since he was heavily drunk and I had gone to Munirka to bring him home…I went to Munirka on a cycle with my nephew to pick up my brother and the others,” he told the court. [caption id=“attachment_945953” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The bus in which the incident took place. AFP[/caption] Mukesh told the court that when the victim and her friend boarded the bus three of the co-accused Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma were seated in the driver’s cabin with him and that Ram Singh and the juvenile were standing near the door. Asked if was aware that after the two boarded the bus, his brother picked up a fight with the victim’s friend and that the friend was attacked with an iron rod, Mukesh told the court, “I don’t know about the iron rod but there was a fight between the victim’s friend and the other accused.” He further told the court that lights in the bus were switched off after sometime. “The lights inside the bus were put off near the Malai Mandir. Thereafter, I do not know what they did with the girl.” Asked by the judge if he heard cries for help of the victim, he said “I did not hear anything, the door of the driver’s cabin was closed.” He denied raping the victim, telling the court that “he kept on driving the bus.” Mukesh further told the court that the victim and her friend were thrown off the bus near the Mahipalpur flyover. “I do not know who threw them off the bus as the lights were off,” he said. Accused Mukesh and three others - Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma are on trial for the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student and attack on her friend. The fifth accused is a juvenile and the Juvenile Justice Board is expected to deliver its verdict on him tomorrow. While he denied robbing the victim and her friend, he told the court that he saw clothes of the victims in the bus later that night. He told the court, “..at about 12.30 am I found torn clothes and other material inside the bus. Accused Akshay Thakur and the juvenile had cleaned the bus. I had only parked it in front of the Ravi Dass Mandir, in Ravi Dass camp.” Recording of the statement of the accused Mukesh will continue tomorrow.