Developed By: iNFOTYKE
New Delhi: Several charges, including that of murder which carries death penalty, were on Thursday filed against all the five adult accused in the gangrape case in which a 23-year-old Delhi girl lost her life, prompting nationwide protests recently.
The five, including the driver of the bus in which the gangrape took place on December 16, were charged with murder, gangrape, attempt to murder, kidnapping, unnatural offences, dacoity, hurting in committing robbery, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.
The case of the sixth accused, a juvenile, will be filed before the Juvenile Justice Board.
In the 33-page charge-sheet with annexures running into several hundred pages, was filed before Metropolitan Magistrate Surya Malik Grover with the prosecution urging the court to keep the document in a sealed cover to protect the identity of the victim and that the proceedings be held in-camera.
The court has posted the matter for hearing on January 5 before the area magistrate who is expected to commit it to sessions for trial.
The prosecution alleged that the crime was executed in a “well-planned” manner. “We have invoked section 120-B as all the six accused have committed the crime in a well-planned manner,” public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told reporters.
“Each one of them has a specific role in the commission of the offence. So they are equally liable for the crime. We have sufficient evidence against all the accused including the juvenile offender,” he said.
Mohan said the DNA report has established the involvement of all the accused in the crime. The five accused are Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh and their accomplices Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
The role of the juvenile offender is also elaborated in the charge sheet. Apart from the victim’s male friend, who was also assaulted in the bus, the charge sheet names around 40 people as witnesses to support its case against the five accused.
The accused have also been charged with attempt to kill the male friend in the bus, whose owner has also been arrested and remanded to police custody by a Tis Hazari court on Thursday.
Police also told the court it would also place before it the charge sheet in electronic form and sought more time for the same saying the annexures to the charge sheet are bulky. It sought more time for filing the e-charge sheet and was allowed to do so by January 5.