New Delhi:
Defence lawyers will today scrutinise the documents that were submitted along with the chargesheet by the Delhi Police in the gang-rape and murder case of a 23-year-old medical student. With the trial all set to begin, several applications submitted by the lawyers of the accused men may also be taken up by the court today.
The trial is likely to be assigned to a fast-track court inaugurated earlier this month specially to hear this case and others involving crimes against women.
The five men, who are accused of raping and murdering the girl on a bus in the capital on December 16, will be represented by a quartet of lawyers who volunteered to handle their defence. Ram Singh, the man who had access to the bus used for the heinous attack, will be represented by VK Anand. His brother, Mukesh will be defended by ML Sharma. A lawyer named AP Singh will defend Akshay Singh, a bus cleaner and Vinay Sharma, who worked at a gym. Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller, will be defended by counsel Vivek Sharma.
Advocate ML Sharma has already alleged that the men are being physically tortured by the police in jail.
"All the accused have been badly beaten by the police and they have used the third degree to extract the statement that suits the evidence they have collected," he said outside court last week, adding that the accused "have been forced to confess to crimes that they did not commit."
The paramedical student was raped and brutally assaulted before being thrown out on the road without clothes on December 16 night, sparking outrage in the country. The girl died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
The five accused are in judicial custody. The case of the sixth accused - a minor - is being heard by a Juvenile Justice Board.