SC told that gangrapists identified
The CBI on Friday told the Supreme Court that some of the accused involved in the gangrape incident, who had uploaded clippings of the attack online, had been identified and an investigation was in progress.
The social justice Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Uday Lalit had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter written to Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala. The NGO had sent a pen drive containing two videos showing the crime committed by the accused, and had sought appropriate action. Taking serious exception to the non-appearance of counsel for Odhisa, the bench directed its chief secretary to be present for the next hearing.
Additional SolicitorGeneral Maninder Singh, for the CBI, submitted in a sealed cover the status report stating that eight regular cases and one preliminary enquiry had been registered pursuant to the apex court’s directions.
The ASG said in one case, three accused were arrested by a state government (he did not name the state) on lesser charges and were released on bail. The bench then transferred this case to the CBI for further investigation. In another case, the CBI said though the accused had been identified they were under surveillance and once their role was established, they would be arrested.
The Bench recorded ASG’s statement that the matter was now being monitored by the Computer Emergency Response Team, which would take steps to block the websites which had uploaded the clips.
During the last hearing the court had observed that Telangana police had failed to apprehend the rapists or those involved in damaging the car of Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala.
The Bench had imposed a fine of `25,000 on the Telangana state, which was to be given to the petitioner. On Friday, satisfied with the explanation given by ASG Neeraj Kishan Kaul, the Bench waived off this amount,but took on record the ASG’s submission that the state would pay `5,000 to the SC legal services authority. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 10.