Delhi rape in fast- track court, trial opens Jan 21
Friday, 18/01/2013
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
NEW DELHI: A month after the brutal gangrape of a young woman in a moving bus in Delhi and impassioned demands from across India for quick action against the perpetrators, the case was transferred Thursday to a fast- track court, which will start hearings from January 21.
The proceedings against five accused — Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur — will be conducted by additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna, who heads the fasttrack court at the Saket court complex. The case of the sixth accused — a minor — is being heard by a Juvenile Justice Board. The court would hold daily hearings.
Defence lawyers said they had already received copies of the chargesheet and related documents. They also said the prosecution’s plea to bring the five men in handcuffs was rejected.
The 23- year- old physiotherapy student was gangraped, her male friend beaten and both stripped and thrown off the bus on December 16. Severely battered, she fought for her life for 10 days at Safdarjung Hospital before being sent to a Singapore hospital, where she died on December 30.
