SC rejects bail plea of Park Street rape accused

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected bail pleas of two accused in the Kolkata Park Street gang-rape case after noting that two co-accused in the case were still at large.

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Gokhale said they did not find the case fit enough to exercise their jurisdiction as two of the accused are still absconding.

Sumit Bajaj and Mohd Nasir Khan approached the apex court challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court denying them bail in October.

An Anglo-Indian woman had lodged an FIR alleging that she was gang-raped by five men in a moving car on the intervening night of February 5 and 6 2012.

She claimed that the accused had picked her up from a pub after befriending her during the party.

Appearing for the accused, senior advocate U U Lalit submitted that they were not named in the FIR and also that the CCTV footage did not show the victim conversing with the accused or leaving with them in a car.

However, representing the West Bengal government, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi pointed out that the hotel guard and waiters’ had made statements that they saw the victim in conversation with the accused and later leaving with them in Bajaj’s car.

 He also pointed out that two of the accused were still absconding and could not be apprehended.