New Delhi:
The trial of the five men accused of gang-raping and brutally assaulting a medical student on a bus in Delhi 50 days ago will formally begin today.
The Delhi Police, which had already filed a 650-page chargesheet in the case, has now filed a supplementary sheet that includes the post-mortem report from a Singapore hospital where the 23-year-old student died two weeks after the gang-rape. The men are charged with murdering her.
On the first day of trial, the prosecution has called four witnesses, including a software engineer who was with the student and tried to protect her from the men. The police says the gang then turned on him with an iron rod and forced her to the back of the bus before they took turns raping the student.
After the horrific assault on the bus, the men threw the couple out, naked and bleeding, onto the road. Among the witnesses expected in court today is also a guard who was on his way to work at the Delhi-Gurgaon toll plaza when he saw the couple lying bleeding on the road, and phoned the police for help.
The police has lined up 80 witnesses to be examined in the case. The trial will be held in-camera, or behind closed doors, and the proceedings cannot be made public.
Before she died, Amanat (NOT her real name) recorded her testimony for a judge; for the prosecution, her statement along with that of her friend's, will be crucial.
The five suspects on Saturday pleaded not guilty to the charges that were read out to them. If convicted, they could face the death penalty. A sixth, who is a juvenile, is being tried separately and faces a maximum sentence of three years in a reform facility. Amanat's family says this is a travesty.
The savagery of the assault sent shock waves through India, which realigned its anger and grief into street protests demanding better policing for women, stricter anti-rape laws, and swift justice for Amanat.
The government has brought in an Ordinance on crime against women that, it says, will facilitate quicker trials and help convict the guilty, also ensuring the protection of the rights of witnesses and victims. But women's groups are calling it a betrayal as some key recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee - set up to review rape laws - have not been accepted by the government.