Delhi gangrape: Court completes recording evidence of prosecution witnesses

New Delhi: A Delhi court on completed recording of the evidence of prosecution witnesses in the 16 December gangrape case with the investigating officer (IO), saying she had arrested accused after the incident was reported.

“Now the statements of the prosecution witness stands closed,” the court said while fixing 10 July to begin recording of the statements of the accused who will explain the circumstances appearing in the evidence against them in response to queries put by the judge.

The woman sub-inspector, posted at Vasant Vihar police station here, deposed before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna that she had arrested accused Pawan Gupta and also seized the clothes worn by him on the night of the incident.

“Accused Pawan Gupta was arrested on 18 December, 2012. Five police personnel were with me when I had arrested Pawan. I had recorded the disclosure statement of Pawan in the police station,” the IO said, while deposing as 80th witness for the prosecution.

According to the police, on 16 December night, a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was beaten up and gangraped in a bus in which she was travelling with her male friend.

There were six others in the bus, including the driver, Ram Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh all of whom had raped the girl, it said.

The victim died of her injuries on 29 December last year while undergoing treatment at a Singapore Hospital.

During the trial, Ram Singh, was found dead in Tihar jail in 11 March and court proceedings against him stand abated.

The sixth accused, a juvenile, is facing the inquiry before the juvenile justice board here.

Asked why she has not shown the recovery of the clothes of Pawan on December 18 after his arrest, the IO said that due to some other formalities in the same case related to the arrest of other accused, the recovery was done at his instance on the next day.

“It is correct that the recovery was effected at the instance of Pawan Gupta on December 19, 2012 though he was arrested on December 18, 2012:, she said

Explaining why the recovery could not be made on 18 December, she said it was because of the fact that after Pawan was arrested, “we had to produce accused Ram Singh (since deceased) in the court and other formalities had to be done.

So, the accused (Gupta) was kept in the police station and that his disclosure was recorded in the night time and hence the recovery was done at his instance on the next day”.

The officer has also denied the claim of the accused that the blood sample on his clothes was planted by her at the instance of some senior official and Pawan was falsely implicated.

“It is wrong to suggest that the blood gauz of the complainant and the prosecutrix (the victim and her male friend) was in my possession at the time of recovery of the clothes at the instance of Pawan.

“It is wrong to suggest that I had deliberately not shown the recovery of the clothes from 18 December, 2012 to 19 December, 2012, so as to manipulate the things or to plant the blood of the victim on the clothes of the accused,” the IO deposed.

She had arrested prime accused Ram Singh in the case. Later, Pawan, Vinay and Mukesh were apprehended and they had led the investigators to the important evidence in the case.

On 21 December, 2012, a juvenile was apprehended from Anand Vihar bus terminal in east Delhi. The last arrest in the case was Akshay who was apprehended from Aurangabad in Bihar.

PTI