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Charges framed against driver, conductor in bus gang-rape case
New Delhi: A week after police filed a 400-page chargesheet, a Delhi court on Wednesday framed charges against a bus driver and conductor accused of kidnapping and gang-raping a 16-year-old girl inside a sleeper bus in August
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New Delhi: A week after police filed a 400-page chargesheet, a Delhi court on Wednesday framed charges against a bus driver and conductor accused of kidnapping and gang-raping a 16-year-old girl inside a sleeper bus in August.
Special Judge (POCSO) Sonam Gupta of Tis Hazari courts rejected the defence’s contention that the case was built on evidence “concocted” by police under media pressure stating that the evidence shall be tested at the stage of trial.
The two accused face charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections pertaining to kidnapping, wrongful confinement, kidnapping for marriage or sexual intercourse, and gangrape, along with charges under Section 6 of the POCSO Act for aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
The court has listed the matter for October 24, when it will record the victim’s evidence. A detailed order was not made publicly available.
During the proceedings, special public prosecutor Nimmi Sisodia argued that the case record, particularly the victim’s statement and those of other witnesses, prima facie showed that the accused had kidnapped the girl, confined her in the bus, raped her and then dropped her at Kashmere Gate.
The prosecutor also contended that this was enough to make out offences of kidnapping, wrongful confinement, gangrape and offences under POCSO.
The defence counsel called all the evidence falsely concocted by the police due to a media trial.
According to Delhi Police, the victim,, a Class 11 student from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, was travelling to meet her cousin in Noida on the night of August 4 when she mistakenly got off at the wrong spot in heavy rain and signalled an approaching sleeper bus that had no passengers.
The conductor allegedly told her that the bus was headed to Noida Sector 63. Police said the vehicle was actually returning empty after repairs at a Greater Noida workshop.
Soon after the bus began moving, the conductor allegedly started behaving inappropriately towards her and, over the roughly 47 km journey to Kashmere Gate, the driver and conductor allegedly took turns raping her, the prosecution claimed.
The officer said the accused allegedly threatened to kill her if she resisted. The girl was abandoned on Ring Road near the Kashmere Gate bus terminal, where she reached the Kashmere Gate police station by autorickshaw and reported the incident. Police registered an FIR after her medical examination and detailed statements.
Police traced the bus through CCTV footage to a parking area in Timarpur within hours and arrested the driver, Kuldeep, and the conductor, Sandeep, both residents of Kanpur.
