Gang rape: Five plead not guilty
Source: Agencies |
February 3, 2013, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FIVE men pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges they raped and murdered an Indian trainee physiotherapist, in a case that led to a shake-up of laws against sexual crimes after protests about growing attacks on women.
Police say the gang lured the 23-year-old woman onto a bus in New Delhi, where they repeatedly raped and assaulted her with a metal bar before throwing her bleeding onto a highway. She died of internal injuries two weeks after the December 16 attack.
The men filed into the court room with their faces covered, where lawyers in the case said they were read 13 charges, including murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death. They left after 15 minutes. "After the judge read out the charges, the five pleaded not guilty and walked out," said AP Singh, a lawyer defending two of the accused, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
Singh said the prosecution will call three witnesses to the next hearing on Tuesday, which is the formal start of the trial. The prosecution says it has strong evidence against the five men, including blood stained clothing, DNA matches, mobile phone records and eye-witness statements.
Singh says Sharma was never on the bus and Thakur was hiding beneath a seat and never took part in the crime.
The other men - brothers Ram and Mukesh Singh and Pawan Kumar - are represented by two other lawyers. A sixth person police say was part of the gang that attacked the woman and her friend is a juvenile and will be tried separately.
The brutality of the attack was shocking even to a nation inured to a rising wave of sexual crimes against women. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in the weeks that followed. In response to the outcry, on Friday the cabinet fast-tracked new, tougher penalties for sex crimes.
Police say the gang lured the 23-year-old woman onto a bus in New Delhi, where they repeatedly raped and assaulted her with a metal bar before throwing her bleeding onto a highway. She died of internal injuries two weeks after the December 16 attack.
The men filed into the court room with their faces covered, where lawyers in the case said they were read 13 charges, including murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death. They left after 15 minutes. "After the judge read out the charges, the five pleaded not guilty and walked out," said AP Singh, a lawyer defending two of the accused, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
Singh said the prosecution will call three witnesses to the next hearing on Tuesday, which is the formal start of the trial. The prosecution says it has strong evidence against the five men, including blood stained clothing, DNA matches, mobile phone records and eye-witness statements.
Singh says Sharma was never on the bus and Thakur was hiding beneath a seat and never took part in the crime.
The other men - brothers Ram and Mukesh Singh and Pawan Kumar - are represented by two other lawyers. A sixth person police say was part of the gang that attacked the woman and her friend is a juvenile and will be tried separately.
The brutality of the attack was shocking even to a nation inured to a rising wave of sexual crimes against women. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in the weeks that followed. In response to the outcry, on Friday the cabinet fast-tracked new, tougher penalties for sex crimes.
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