’Amanat’ case: Hearings begin tomorrow, arrested won’t be in court

mangaloretoday.com/ ITV

New Delhi, Jan 2: Tomorrow, a court in South Delhi will start hearing the case of a young student’s gang-rape and murder, an assault so relentlessly brutal that India is raw with anger and grief as it lobbies for fast-track measures to improve safety for women.

The court which will hold daily hearings for this case was inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir today.  

Six people, one of them reportedly a minor - have been accused of the rape and murder of 23-year-old "Amanat." They were allegedly drunk when they took a school bus one of them drove out for a spin at night and tricked a young girl and her male friend into coming on board.

 

The minor is in a juvenile home. The five adult men accused of the crime are in Tihar Jail. They will not be present in court tomorrow. The police is likely to present to the judge a 1,000-page chargesheet against the five men. 30 witnesses listed include doctors who tried to save the student’s life in Delhi and Singapore.

Before she died, the student recorded her testimony against her attackers. Her friend’s statement will also serve as crucial evidence.

Supreme Court lawyer Dayan Krishnan has been selected the special public prosecutor for this case. The court assigned to the case is in Saket and the local bar association has said its lawyers will not represent the accused. 

Sources at Tihar Jail say that the five men there are at risk of attack from other prisoners. Their cells have special double-locks, and they are kept in isolation to minimize their contact with other inmates.

On the night of December 16, when they saw the young couple standing on the roadside, they allegedly pretended their bus -with tinted windows, curtains and "school" painted on the side - doubled up at nights as a private bus, the kind used so commonly in Delhi to compensate for the paucity of public transport at night.

The student and her friend were hit with an iron rod. She was allegedly raped by each of the six men on board, and was then thrown onto the road an hour later along with her friend. Police sources say that in court, they will allege that the men also planned to drive over the student, but her friend, battered and bleeding, managed to push her out of the way.