Ashiana case trial begins: Victim, accused come face to face in court

LUCKNOW: For the first time in 10 years, the Ashiana gangrape survivor and prime accused Gaurav Shukla were face to face in the courtroom on Monday.

The seventh floor of the session’s court building remained abuzz with people, as a battery of lawyers, family members and supporters of the victim and the accused, media persons and the court staff, all gathered to witness the first hearing of the trial of Gaurav Shukla, kin of mafiaturned politician Arun Shankar Shukla alias Anna.

At around 2pm, a group of boys came to the court and in a few minutes the prime accused made an entry. He was clad in a white shirt and black trousers and accompanied by a group of men, his father and a battery of lawyers.

And so, after more than a decade, the much-awaited trial of Gaurav Shukla finally started with the recording of statement of the victim. Now that the statement has been recorded, crossexamination by the defence counsel would start in the next hearing that has been scheduled for December 4.

“Memories of the barbaric incident flashed before my eyes as I narrated the incident before the judge. Seeing Gaurav Shukla standing right in front of me only added to my anger and I got the courage to narrate the finest details of the incident before the judge,” said the victim.

The victim told the court that Shukla had been merciless to her during the incident. “He did every dirty thing that he could do with a girl and when I objected he hit me so hard that I severely injured my lips,” she recalled.

The victim’s lawyer Jalaj Gupta said, “Now that the trial has started after so many years and the statement of the victim has been recorded, several other witnesses would be called in the court. Shukla faces charges of gangrape, abduction and criminal intimidation.”

To recall, after a long delay, the age of Gaurav Shukla was decided in March 2015, giving a green signal to his trial. However, the trial could not start for over eight months as the case files were missing.

It was only after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court directed the trial court to send back the record related to Ashiana gang rape case and decide the case within 3 months that the charges were framed against Shukla on November 26.