NEW DELHI: The companion of a medical student who died after being gang-raped identified yesterday the bus on which the attack took place as he testified in the trial of five adults accused of her murder.
The 28-year-old, confined to a wheelchair as a result of injuries sustained in the attack, confirmed that a white bus was the vehicle on which the deadly assault took place on December 16, his father said. “Yes, my son could identify the bus. The cross-examination is going to start now,” said the father, whose son cannot be named for legal reasons.
Although proceedings are subject to a gagging order, police allowed reporters to see the young man being taken in the company of lawyers and the judge to the bus which has been parked in the court compound. No photographs were allowed.
He then returned inside the courtroom where he was expected to be cross-examined by lawyers for the five adult accused, who have all denied murder, rape and robbery charges. A sixth defendant is being tried separately as a juvenile.
“My son will go to any lengths to ensure that the guilty are punished,” the father had earlier said as the two of them entered the courtroom in the Saket district. “He will cooperate and is prepared to answer any questions posed by the defence.”
He is the main witness in a case that is being held in a special fast-track court. The judge has banned all reporting of proceedings inside the courtroom and ordered lawyers not to speak to journalists.
Meanwhile, the father of the student spoke of the toll that the case had taken on him and reiterated his desire to see his daughter’s killers hanged as he appeared at a press conference. “I don’t read newspapers or watch TV. I only want that all the six people should be hanged,” he said. “I have not been able to sleep for three days. I am running fever. I have pain in the legs.”
The father was speaking at a press conference organised by local leaders of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party who want to name a new science museum in Delhi after her.
“We will do everything that will give respect and dignity to her memory. We want her to become a symbol of change in the society,” the BJP leader in Delhi Vijender Gupta said at the press conference.
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New Delhi: A teenaged Class 9 student fought off a rape bid in her own house here by an electricity contractor who thrust an iron rod into her throat to quell her cries for help, police said yesterday. The accused has been arrested.
The victim, 19, who was attacked around 8.30pm on Monday in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, underwent a surgery in throat in the morning and is said to be in a critical condition, police said
Anil Kumar, an electricity distribution contractor, tried to rape the victim finding her alone at her house.
“Kumar went to the victim’s home to collect monthly dues of the electricity. Finding her alone, he tried to rape her. He inserted an iron rod into her mouth when she was crying for help,” said a police officer.
Hearing the victim’s cries some neighbours came to help her but Kumar managed to flee from the spot. He was later arrested from the house of his maternal uncle in Faridabad in Haryana, police said. IANS
