Delhi gangrape: Recording of statement of accused concludes

A Delhi court trying the December 16 gangrape case on Tuesday concluded recording of statements of all the accused who countered the charges framed against them.

A Delhi court trying the December 16 gangrape case on Tuesday concluded recording of statements of all the accused who countered the charges framed against them.

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The last accused to complete his statement was Pawan Gupta, a fruit vendor, who claimed before additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna that he was in an inebriated state on the day of the incident.

He also claimed that he was not in the bus in which the 23-year-old girl was gangraped allegedly by six persons, including a minor.

To the question put to Pawan by the judge that there is evidence that he was present in the bus, he said on December 16, 2012, he had left his fruit shop early and consumed liquor at home. Later in the evening, he had accompanied accused Vinay Sharma to a function in south Delhi.

“After reaching the function, I consumed more liquor. I became unconscious, so I lied down on the bench there. When I woke up, I found myself at home. My father told me that I was brought home by him (father) and my uncle,” he told the judge.

As per police, on December 16, a physiotherapy student was beaten up and gangraped in a bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, who was also brutally attacked with an iron rod.

There were six persons in the bus including driver Ram Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay, Pawan and Mukesh, all of whom had raped the girl, it had said. The victim died of her injuries on December 29 last year while undergoing treatment in a Singapore Hospital.

During the trial, Ram Singh was found dead in Tihar jail on March 11 and court proceedings against him stand abated. The sixth accused, a juvenile, faced an inquiry before the juvenile justice board in New Delhi.

The board is expected to pronounce its verdict on July 25. The maximum punishment he can be given under the Juvenile Justice Act if found guilty is a three-year sentence at a reformatory home.