Cops look to add more teeth to chargesheet

Investigators on Sunday evening held a hurried meeting to add more teeth to their case against the six accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapist on a bus on December 16, sources said. Jatin Anand reports.

Investigators on Sunday evening held a hurried meeting to add more teeth to their case against the six accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapist on a bus on December 16, sources said.

As part of the effort to push for the death penalty for the accused in the aftermath of the woman's death, one of the two counts of dacoity (Section 391 the Indian Penal Code), which they had initially been charged with, was converted to dacoity with murder (Section 396 of the IPC) which, unlike the former, is punishable by death.

"We already have a watertight case against the accused and this will add further to the severity of the charges against the perpetrators of the brutal crime," said an officer, adding that it brought the case closer to the definition of "rarest of the rare". The charges against the men initially included common intention, attempt to murder, dacoity and gangrape.

Although sources declined to comment on the length of the chargesheet -- a figured deemed "irrelevant to the criminal sections and subsections" -- they said it would be complete by January 1.

"We will ensure that the chargesheet would be clear on the charge of 'common intention' as not even one of the six made the slightest effort to prevent or reduce the intensity of the abuse and torture," said the officer, hinting that a line to this effect would form a part of the chargesheet.