The Delhi High Court today allowed recall of 13 prosecution witnesses, including the victim in Uber cab rape case, on the plea of the accused driver and said their cross examination will be carried out on a day-to-day basis.
Justice Sunita Gupta partly allowed the plea of accused Shiv Kumar Yadav, who had allegedly raped the 25-year-old woman executive in December last year, while making it clear "not to repeat any question which has already been put to the witnesses in their cross examination by the earlier counsel".
Apart from the victim, the court also allowed recall of the investigating officers as well as some of the doctors who had examined the victim as well as the accused, saying it was necessary for "ensuring a fair trial".
"Needless to say, it is impressed upon the counsel for the petitioner not to repeat any question which has already been put to the witnesses in their cross examination by the earlier counsel.
It also clarified "that in case for any reason any witness is not available for the purpose of further cross examination, his/her testimony shall be read in evidence as it is", and disposed of the petition.
The court directed the accused to appear before the trial court today at 2 pm "and a date will be fixed by Additional Sessions Judge for recalling the aforesaid witnesses for the purpose of cross examination and thereafter the matter be proceeded in accordance with law".
She had taken the taxi from Vasant Vihar to go to her house in Inderlok and the accused after taking another route, raped her, police said.
Yadav, through his lawyer DK Mishra had sought recall of the 28 prosecution witnesses on the ground that the earlier defence counsel was "incompetent".
He had also alleged that various crucial evidence, including DNA samples and sexual assault kits, had been planted and tampered with.
Advocate Rajesh Mahajan, appearing for Delhi Police, had opposed the plea saying if it is allowed, it will amount to a re-trial.
Earlier, the high court had refused to stay the ongoing proceedings before a trial court here in the case after Mr Mishra requested the bench that till his plea to recall witnesses to re-examine them is pending before it, the ongoing final arguments be stayed.
The trial court had on February 18 rejected Mr Yadav's plea for recalling witnesses saying there was no change in circumstances except for a change of counsel, which was no ground to allow the application.
The trial in the case had commenced on January 15 and the prosecution had concluded recording its evidence in 17 days by examining 28 witnesses. The accused had not examined any witness in his defence.
The trial court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as "false".
The court on January 13 had framed charges against Mr Yadav under various sections of the IPC for alleged offences of endangering a woman's life while raping her, kidnapping with an intent to compel her for marriage, criminally intimidating and causing hurt.
10 Additional Delhi, Bombay High Court Judges Made Permanent Delhi Cops Crack Kidney Sale Racket Operating Across 5 States "Can Only Happen In India": Australian Woman On Uber Driver Navigating Flooded Mumbai Street Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Joe Biden Is The Best Person To Take On Trump, Says His Campaign Wife Among Two Jailed For Life For Man's Murder In Gurugram: Cops 1,100 Flights Cancelled In US As Microsoft Outage Disrupts Operations Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.