High Court notice to police on plea to use interview as proof

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the city police to respond to a plea of December 16 gang rape accused that they be allowed to use as evidence the CD carrying the interview given to a private news channel by the victim’s friend.

“Issue notice to Delhi police. Put up for final disposal of the petition on March 5,” justice G P Mittal said. The court was hearing the petition filed by Ram Singh and his brother Mukesh challenging an order of a special fast track court by which they were not allowed to exhibit the CD of the interview telecast on January 4.

Advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Delhi police, accepted the notice saying “even today I am ready with my arguments. It is submitted that the trial court proceedings should not be stayed due to pendency of this revision petition.”

The gang rape accused, in their plea filed through advocate V K Anand, have assailed the order by which the trial court did not allow them to ‘exhibit, place on record and to play the impugned CD’ on the ground that this was not an admissible piece of evidence.The 23-year-old victim was brutally gang raped in a moving bus in Delhi. 

During the trial, Delhi police had objected to the plea of the accused to use the CD as evidence on the ground that it has been prepared in violation of a CrPC provision that restrains media coverage of the trial and inquiry proceedings related to a rape case, the petition said.

It also said that the police had also questioned the authenticity of the CD, sought to be used by the accused to discredit the recording of dying declaration of the victim.

The trial court on February 2, had framed charges against the five adult accused, bus driver Ram Singh and his brother Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Singh, under various sections of the IPC for offences.

The trial court is hearing in-camera proceedings in the case on a day-to-day basis and has imposed a ban under the law on media from reporting the same.