Delhi court rejects plea to hold day-to-day trial in Dalit girl rape-murder case

The judge said that he has 620 pending cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 in his court, including the present one, and several accused are languishing in jail pending trial.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday rejected the city police’s plea for holding day-to-day trial in the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl at a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment, saying that there is huge pendency of crime against children cases.

The girl, from a Dalit family in a village near Delhi cantonment, was found dead by her parents in a local crematorium on August 1. (AP)

Additional sessions judge Ashutosh Kumar dismissed a plea by the police seeking expeditious hearing in the matter. The judge said that he has 620 pending cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 in his court, including the present one, and several accused are languishing in jail pending trial.

“In view of the huge pendency before this court and the submissions of the defence counsel that they have to attend their other matters, day-to-day hearing will not be possible in this case. However, this court shall expeditiously hear the case,” the judge said.

The girl, from a Dalit family in a village near Delhi cantonment, was found dead by her parents in a local crematorium earlier this month. The accused — a 55-year-old priest and his three associates — say the girl died of electrocution while fetching water from a cooler but the family alleges that the suspects hurriedly cremated the body after raping her. The four accused are in jail.

On August 28, police filed a charge sheet against the four accused—Radhey Shyam, Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmed and Laxmi Narayan--for rape, wrongful confinement, murder, destruction of evidence, and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act.

On Tuesday, additional public prosecutor Yadvinder Singh, appearing for the police, said fast tracking the case will bring justice to the victim’s family.

However, this was opposed by Radhey Shyam’s counsel, LK Verma, who contended that the arguments on charge can only begin after the police submit evidence of rape of the minor girl in their supplementary charge sheet.

“There are so many Pocso cases. Why is the police trying to fast track this case only? The charge sheet was filed within a month and evidence of rape is yet to be proved by them. The accused in this case deserve a fair trial too, one which is not hurried,” he argued, adding that he had other cases to look into and he cannot devote his time only on a single case.

Verma, also moved an application in the court, seeking protection for his client who was being assaulted by the co-inmates in the prison as well as the jail van. The application also said that there was danger to Shyam’s life because he is being threatened to life by the inmates.

“Life of the applicant (Shyam) is in danger as some of the co-prisoners used to beat him in jail as well while traveling to the court on a police van during the proceedings of the case and are regularly being threatened to kill,” it alleged.

The court issued notice to the concerned DCP and jail authorities on the plea and posted it for consideration on September 29, the date already fixed. It also sought the response of the police on the plea by Shyam seeking the CCTV footage of August 1 and the coloured photographs of the incident of crime, annexed in the charge sheet.