Dec 16 gang-rape: Convict’s father seeks FIR against sole witness
New Delhi: A plea has been filed before a city court Wednesday against the sole eyewitness and the friend of 23-year-old paramedic student who was gang-raped in a moving bus on December 16, 2012.
The criminal complaint, filed by the father of one of the convicts Pawan Kumar, has sought the registration of an FIR against the woman’s male friend for ‘giving false and concocted information’, which had led to Kumar’s conviction.
The friend, the sole eyewitness in the case, was with her on the bus on the night of the incident.
The complaint, filed by Heera Lal Gupta, through advocate AP Singh, said a series of 10 tweets by the former managing director of a private news channel had said that the woman’s friend had taken money as bribe for interviews and debate appearances on television channels.
“It is quite clear that the sole eyewitness in the case has accumulated lakhs of rupees in bribe from various news channels...and thus affected the case by resulting in media trial (sic),” the complaint said.
The plea contended that the witness had given “false facts” and “fabricated statements” to the police. It sought that summons be sent to the man for providing a “baseless and concocted story”.
It sought that directions be issued to the police to register a case against the man for “hatching a well-planned conspiracy against innocent people”, leading to their conviction and causing widespread public anger.
“This calls for independent investigation into the perjury that appears to have been committed by him (witness), being the sole witness, his testimony has strongly influenced the outcome of the case which led to the imposition of death penalty on the accused,” the complaint said.