Fast Track Court takes cognisance of Delhi gangrape

New Delhi, Jan 5: A fast track court here took cognisance of the Delhi gangrape as the hearing in the case began today. Police had earlier filed a charge sheet against the five men who not only sexually abused the 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus but also fatally injured her on the night of Dec 16, 2012.

The accused - bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, bus cleaner Akshay Thakur, fruit vendor Pawan Gupta and assistant gym instructor Vinay Sharma - have been charged with murder, attempt to murder, gangrape, kidnapping, dacoity, hurting in committing robbery, unnatural offences, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and common intention under the IPC.

The prosecution is likely to urge the court to award capital punishment to the aforementioned persons. The charge sheet running into 1000 pages gives details of how they invited the victim and her male companion to board the bus and then assaulted the duo with a rod. The rapists stripped both the victim and her friend before throwing them out of the bus near the Mahipalpur flyover.

An unprecedented upsurge of anger was seen while the victim battled for life at Safdarjung Hospital. Most of the protesters demanded death penalty for rapists.

Though the doctors tried their utmost to save the physiotherapy intern and millions prayed for her recovery, she breathed her last at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on Dec 29, 2012.

Even as the entire nation mourned her untimely demise, the Centre indicated that the laws pertaining to rape could be amended. The charge sheet mentions all these events. It contains the statements of 30 witnesses too.

The fast track court is expected to soon decide whether to accept the prosecution's request for in-camera trial.

The sixth accused whose brutality can be gauged from the fact that he drew out the victim's intestines with his hands will face the Juvenile Justice Board if bone density tests show he was still a minor at the time of the crime.

OneIndia News