Delhi gangrape: Accused not framed, victim’s friend tells court

On the final day of cross-examination of the gang-rape victim’s friend, the Defence seemed to imply that one of the accused, Mukesh, had been framed. The denying the claim by defence lawyer VK Anand, representing accused Mukesh, the victim’s friend told the fast-track court that it was “wrong to suggest that accused Mukesh had nothing to do with this case or that I had framed him because he is a brother of accused Ram Singh or that he was framed at the instance of the police.” [caption id=“attachment_778363” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image for representation only. PTI[/caption] The victim’s friend, the prosecution’s most crucial witness, was brutally attacked and his friend gang-raped on a moving bus on the night of 16 December. The victim, a student, succumbed to injuries two weeks later at a Singapore Hospital, where she had been shifted. The victim’s friend denied the suggestion by the defence that Mukesh had been shown to him by the Delhi Police before the TIP or Test Identification Parade (procedure to identify the accused) or that accused Mukesh’s photo was shown to him by the Police before the TIP. The victim’s friend told the fast-track court that it was “wrong to suggest that I had not seen the face of the person who was driving the bus.” He also denied the suggestion by the defence that Mukesh was not sitting on the driver’s seat when he and the victim had entered the bus. “I had already identified the accused who was sitting on the driver’s seat at the time of entering the bus,” the victim’s friend told the judge. He denied the defence’s claim that Mukesh had neither beaten nor raped the victim. Four accused –Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh – are on trial for gangrape and murder. The fifth accused, juvenile, is facing trial before the juvenile justice board. The main accused Ram Singh was found hanging in his prison cell in Tihar on 11 March.