Delhi gangrape: 6th accused sent to judicial custody

One of the six accused in the December 16 gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedical student, who died on Saturday, was remanded in judicial custody for 12 days by a Delhi court.

Akshay Singh alias Thakur, who was the last one to be arrested in the case, was produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma after the expiry of his day-long police custody.

"He (Akshay) is remanded to judicial custody. Let he be produced on January 9," the court said after the police did not seek his further custody. Akshay had been remanded in police custody on Friday for a day to recover the remaining case property and clothes which he and other arrested five co-accused were wearing while allegedly gangraping and brutally assaulting the victim in a moving bus here on the fateful night.

After the day-long custody, the police did not seek his further remand as they recovered the articles, which had not been recovered earlier. The investigating officer in the case told the court that they have seized the clothes of the accused worn on the night of incident and also the mobile of the girl and the ATM card of her male friend and other valuables at the instance of accused Akshay.

It also said the victim's male friend, a 28-year-old software engineer had identified the valuables, which were robbed from them after the incident. The police told the court that the boy had even identified the ring, which his female friend was wearing on that night.

Akshay was arrested on December 21 and underwent test identification parade on December 26, during which the victim's male friend had also identified him as one of the persons involved in the incident.

Besides him, the others arrested in the gangrape case -- Ram Singh, Mukesh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta -- are in judicial custody till January 6. All the five accused are facing charges under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting), 376 (2)(g) (gangrape), 377 (unnatural offences), 394 (hurting in committing robbery) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

The proceedings relating to the sixth accused are being undertaken separately before the Juvenile Justice Board as he is a minor. Both the victims, the girl and her male friend, who had boarded the chartered bus with tinted glass windows from Munirka to Palam around 9.45 pm on December 16, were assaulted with an iron rod by the men after the two resisted before they were dumped on the road side near Mahipalpur flyover in South Delhi, police had said.