Uber cab rape case: Delhi court rejects plea to recall all witnesses

New Delhi: The plea of Shiv Kumar Yadav, the driver accused in the Uber cab rape case, seeking to re-examine 28 prosecution witnesses, was on Wednesday rejected by a Delhi court which said it was an endeavour to “delay the proceedings” and an attempt to “protract the trial”. [caption id=“attachment_2106983” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Uber cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav. PTI[/caption] Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja dismissed the plea saying there was no change in circumstances except change of counsel, which according to her, was no ground to allow the application. “The application under consideration is thus nothing but an attempt to protract the trial and in fact seek an entire re-trial. “Considering the above discussion, I am of the view that the application under consideration deserves to be rejected,” the judge said and fixed the case for Thursday to begin final arguments. The court, while deciding the plea, retraced the entire proceedings of the case in the 19-page order, ranging from appointment of private counsel of the accused to adjournments given to him and change of his advocate. 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, through his advocate D K Mishra, had sought to recall all the 28 prosecution witnesses on the ground that he was not given fair opportunity to defend himself. The counsel had argued that there were “glaring defects, mistakes and illegalities” requiring recall of the witnesses to another round of cross-examination for just and fair decision in the case. The plea was opposed by Senior Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava who had said a change of defence counsel was no ground to recall the witnesses. He had argued that the accused was trying to delay the trial in the case by moving such plea. Mishra had submitted that entire cross examination of all the prosecution witnesses conducted by the earlier counsel was “prejudicial to the interest of the accused as the previous advocate was incompetent and he being a competent lawyer” is entitled to recall the witnesses and examine them again. To this the judge said, “this plea to my mind is nothing but an abuse of process of law and an endeavour to delay the proceedings of the case. The ground taken in the application to recall the prosecution witnesses are also unacceptable” and said it was unable to accept the accused’s plea. The trial in the case had commenced on 15 January and the prosecution had concluded recording its evidence in 17 days by examining 28 witnesses. The accused had not examined any witness in his defence. The court had earlier noted in one of its order that the accused appeared to have made an attempt to delay the proceedings by moving applications. During recording of her statement in the court, the victim had identified Yadav as the one who had raped her. The court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as “false”. The court on 13 January had framed charges against Yadav under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for alleged offences of endangering a woman’s life while raping her, kidnapping with an intent to compel her for marriage, criminally intimidating and causing hurt. If convicted in the case, Yadav faces a maximum of life imprisonment as punishment. PTI