Delhi gangrape: Draft chargesheet ready, cite 30 witnesses

mangaloretoday.com/CNN/IBN

New Delhi, Dec 31: The Delhi Police has finalised the draft chargesheet in the gangrape and murder case of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus in the national capital. According to sources, the Delhi Police is expected to cite 30 witnesses in connection with the case.

 

As of now, the draft chargesheet is being vetted by legal experts, and in the court, the police would ask for hanging of the accused under the rarest of rare category, said sources.

This comes two days after the Delhi Police said that they would file the chargesheet in the case by January 3, 2013. After the death of the braveheart, the police had said that all the accused in the case would be charged with murder. While one of the accused is a minor, the others are Ram Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur.

The five accused who are above the age of 18 years will be charged under Section 302 (murder) and could be given death penalty. Police have also sought the court’s permission to get a bone marrow check to ascertain the age of the accused, who is claiming to be minor.

Two of the accused - Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur - have undergone the test identification parade while the others refused to do so. Both Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur were identified by the braveheart’s male friend, a 28-year-old software engineer, who was with the girl when the horrific crime took place. Her friend was also brutally beaten up by the accused when he tried to defend and save her.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court lawyer Dayan Krishnan has been appointed as the special public prosecutor by the Delhi Police to conduct trial in the December 16 case. Following his appointment, Krishnan had said, "I had given my consent to conduct the trial."

Krishnan has been representing NIA, Delhi Police and other agencies at various judicial fora in many cases including the Nitish Katara murder case.