Delhi gangrape: Woman cop to be cross-examined tomorrow

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday fixed for Tuesday the crucial cross-examination of a woman police officer who identified all material evidence including the blood stained bedsheet with which the 16 December gangrape victim and her friend were covered after they were thrown out of a moving bus. The sub-inspector, posted at Vasant Vihar police station here, deposed for the third day before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna and identified the bedsheet with which the victim and her friend were covered when they were first spotted by the PCR van at a road near a flyover in south Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_837783” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image for representation only. AFP[/caption] “…White bedsheet having blood stains is taken out and shown to the witness (sub inspector), who identified it to be the same bedsheet which was taken into possessions by her…,” the investigating officer (IO), who is the key prosecution witness in the case, told the court. The court said the counsel appearing for the accused can cross-examine the officer from tomorrow onwards. The IO had also identified the key of the bus and also the iron rods with which the girl was badly assaulted, when it was shown to her after desealing of the case properties in the court room. Deposing as a last witness for the prosecution, the IO said that the clothes lying in the court room are of the five accused, including Ram Singh who was found hanging in his cell in Tihar jail on March 11 and against whom the trial has been been abated. Prime accused Ram Singh was the first arrest in the case. Later, accused Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma 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. He is facing proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board. The last arrest in the case was Akshay Thakur who was apprehended from Aurangabad in Bihar. Asked by the prosecutor whether the mobile phones, which are case property, belong to the 23-year-old victim, who was gangraped and looted of her valuables by the six, the IO said it is the same which has been recovered at the instance of accused Mukesh. On being shown the robbed articles of victim’s friend, the witness said “the pair of Hush puppies shoes belongs to the complainant (victim’s male friend)”. Pawan, Akshay, Vinay and Mukesh are four adult accused facing trial for brutally assaulting and gangraping the girl who succumbed to her injuries at a Singapore hospital on 29 December last year. PTI