New Delhi:
Lawyers for the five men accused of the gang-rape and murder of a medical student in Delhi last month want the trial to be moved out of Delhi for "proper and justifiable hearing," and suggested Mathura and Coimbatore as options.
The five men are being represented by four different lawyers, who say that their clients are unlikely to get a fair trial at a fast track court that was set up earlier this month specifically for this case and others involving crimes against women.
ML Sharma, who is defending Mukesh, the man who was driving the bus that night, claims that humungous public pressure is driving the media, the government and the judiciary to indict his client.
The savage assault on Amanat (NOT her real name), who died, and her male friend, who survived, triggered a wave of angry protests across India with student demonstrators taking the lead.
After initially failing to gauge the public mood or assuage the overwhelming anger and grief, senior ministers including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged that there would be swift and severe punishment for the guilty.
So far the trial proceeding has been held behind closed doors, partly because of the risk to the accused, a concern emphasised by not just their lawyers but the public prosecutors as well. Lawyers for the five men in jail claim that other prisoners had attacked them.