Delhi gang rape: Woman police officer to be cross-examined

A Delhi court fixed the crucial cross-examination of a woman police officer for Tuesday who identified all material evidence including the blood stained bedsheet with which the December 16 gang rape victim and her friend were covered after they were thrown out of a moving bus.

The sub-inspector, posted at Vasant Vihar police station in the national capital, deposed for the third day before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna and identified the bedsheet with which the victim and her friend were covered when they were first spotted by the PCR van at a road near a flyover in south Delhi.

"...White bedsheet having blood stains is taken out and shown to the witness (sub inspector), who identified it to be the same bedsheet which was taken into possessions by her...," the investigating officer, who is the key prosecution witness in the case, told the court.

The court said the counsel appearing for the accused can cross-examine the officer from Tuesday onwards.

The IO had also identified the key of the bus and also the iron rods with which the girl was badly assaulted, when it was shown to her after desealing of the case properties in the court room.

Deposing as a last witness for the prosecution, the IO said that the clothes lying in the court room are of the five accused, including Ram Singh who was found hanging in his cell in Tihar jail on March 11 and against whom the trial has been been abated.

Prime accused Ram Singh was the first arrest in the case. Later, accused Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh were apprehended and they had led the investigators to the important evidence in the case.

On December 21, 2012, a juvenile was apprehended from Anand Vihar bus terminal in east Delhi. He is facing proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board. The last arrest in the case was Akshay Thakur who was apprehended from Aurangabad in Bihar.

Asked by the prosecutor whether the mobile phones, which are case property, belong to the 23-year-old victim, who was gang raped and looted of her valuables by the six, the IO said it is the same which has been recovered at the instance of accused Mukesh.

On being shown the robbed articles of victim's friend, the witness said "the pair of Hush puppies shoes belongs to the complainant (victim's male friend)".

Pawan, Akshay, Vinay and Mukesh are four adult accused facing trial for brutally assaulting and gang raping the girl who succumbed to her injuries at a Singapore hospital on December 29 last year.

Image: Reuters