NEW DELHI, Jan 12:
An eyewitness today identified in a Delhi court the six accused who had allegedly gangraped a 51-year-old Danish tourist at knife point here in January last year.
Deposing as a prosecution witness, Shivji Singh, who was working as a gardener with Indian Railways, told Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja that he had seen all the accused sitting with the woman in a park and at that time, one of them was raping her.
Singh deposed that on the evening of January 14, 2014, when he returned to her room and started preparing food, he heard a voice which appeared to be an alarm raised by a woman and found that it was coming from a temple in the park.
“I saw all the accused sitting nearby the foreigner lady and Mahender was committing rape upon her. All the other accused were sitting surrounding the woman and Arjun was having a knife in his hand,” Singh deposed in the court.
Singh, whose statement remained inconclusive today and would continue tomorrow, said the accused saw him and showed him the knife with a gesture that he would be killed after which he became frightened and returned to him room.
The witnesses identified the six men in the court and said they were ruffians who resided in the area and used to commit petty offences.
The police, in its charge sheet, had said that the eight persons, all vagabonds, had robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014 after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers’ Club near New Delhi Railway Station.
The eight accused, including the two juveniles, were arrested in the case. The two juveniles are facing an inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board here.
The six adult accused —— Mahendra alias Ganja (24), Mohd Raja (22), Raju (23), Arjun (21), Raju Chakka (22) and Shyam Lal (55) are in judicial custody.
The eight have been booked under Sections 376 (2)(G) (gangrape), 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 392 (robbery) of IPC.
Earlier, while Shyam Lal had claimed that he was impotent and has not raped the woman, Arjun had told the court that he was a juvenile and police had kept him in illegal detention ever since his arrest in January last year.
The court had earlier directed the investigating officer (IO) of the case to furnish a report regarding the procedure to secure the victim’s presence before the court for recording her statement in the absence of mutual legal assistance treaty between India and Denmark.
The court’s direction had come after the IO had informed it that the summon issued to the woman has returned unserved as India does not have a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) with Denmark. (PTI)
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