Five to stand trial in fast-track court

Deadly Delhi rape case to be heard on Monday

NEW DELHI: Five adults were ordered to stand trial in a fast-track court on charges of gang-raping and murdering a student on a bus in New Delhi, one of their defence lawyers said.

A magistrate sitting at a district court in the Saket area of southern Delhi committed the five defendants to a more senior sessions court, which was authorised to handle the case, and will begin its hearings on Monday.

“The magistrate has committed the case to the sessions court,” Sadashiv Gupta, the lawyer for fruitseller Pawan Kumar, said.

The court would hold its first hearing on Jan 21, Gupta added.

Kumar and four other adults are all accused of murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping in connection with the attack on the 23-year-old medical student on Dec 16.

The case against a sixth defendant, who says he is 17, is being heard separately by a juvenile court.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died 13 days later in a Singapore hospital from intestinal injuries sustained during the assault in which she was also violated with a rusty iron bar.

A male companion, with whom she had spent the evening at the cinema, was also badly injured in the attack which ended when the pair were thrown off the bus.

The gang-rape triggered mass protests across India and shone a spotlight on the shocking levels of sexual violence against women.

Prosecutors say they have DNA evidence, including blood stains, linking the six defendants to the killing as well as a host of witnesses.

The defendants’ lawyers have said that their clients were beaten by police and forced into confessing.

The government, stunned by the mass protests over the case and criticism of India’s notoriously sluggish justice system, has promised that the case will be dealt with swiftly.

If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to death and many of the protesters who rallied in the aftermath of the attack demanded that all rapists be hanged.

Speaking before the magistrate moved the case, another of the defence team said his client had been badly beaten up in jail by fellow prisoners.

A.P. Singh said that his client Vinay Sharma, a gym instructor, was in agony when he appeared before the district court yesterday.

“Vinay Sharma was badly tortured in jail by other inmates who pounced on him.

“He was not in a position to stand up in court because he was in great pain,” Singh said. — AP