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Delhi’s shame
Delhi HC slams police for being evasive in rape probe report
Two more accused arrested Police to seek life term for accused
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 21
Five days after her brutal gang-rape, the 23-year-old paramedical student was today taken off ventilator support, but she showed early signs of infection setting in, as the Delhi High Court virtually rejected the status report filed by the police on its investigations, describing it as “evasive” and bereft of essential details. The government promised to file the chargesheet in the case “quickly” and seek maximum punishment of life term for the six accused.

“We have gone through the report. We are not convinced as it does not contain details of the police officers posted” along the routes taken by the six assailants during their 40-minute assault on the girl and her male friend in a moving bus, a Bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Rajiv Sahai Endlaw remarked.

The court wanted to know as to why the police was evasive in its status report despite the fact that the court had specifically sought details about the policemen on patrol duty on these roads on the night of December 16.

Fixing the next hearing for January 9, the Bench asked the police to provide all probe details at the earliest. The HC has begun monitoring the police probe after taking suo motu cognisance of the case from media reports.

In other developments in the case, the police nabbed two accused — both bus cleaners — from Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun and Bihar’s Aurangabad. While the accused held in Badaun has claimed to be a minor, the other has been identified as Akshay Thakur.

The police has sent the 'minor' to Safdarjung Hospital, where a board of doctors conducted his medical examination to verify his claim. The police is awaiting the report.

Even as protests continued in the National Capital, including at India Gate, the government complimented the Delhi Police for cracking the “blind case in record time”.

Union Home Secretary RK Singh said the police had cracked the case by arresting all the six accused. He said steps were being taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents. The prosecution would seek the maximum punishment of life term for the assailants in the gang rape case.

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told reporters that his department had unravelled the case within 18 hours making use of the sketchy details given by the victims and the video footage on the movement of the bus.

The HC also noted that the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) at Delhi did not have a director and was functioning with two deputy directors, resulting in delays in investigations. It directed the Delhi Government to immediately deal with this and the problem of lack of infrastructure, including chemicals used in forensic tests, at the CFSL.

The HC, however, did not allow a woman lawyer’s plea for shifting the 23-year-old victim to the Apollo Hospital here, clarifying that it had already directed the authorities to take the girl to a super specialty hospital if required.

In an emotional moment, the male friend of the girl who was with her during the sexual assault, met the victim for the first time during which she enquired from him about her assailants.

Home Secy, police chief summoned

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has summoned Union Home Secretary RK Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar on December 27 to discuss atrocities against women and the law and order situation in the country and Delhi in particular.