Dec 16 case: Friend's description of bus matches CCTV clip

The woman police officer, who was instrumental in cracking the December 16 gang rape case, on Wednesday told a Delhi Court that the description given by the victim’s male friend about the bus in which the incident took place matched with the video footage taken from a hotel.

She asserted that the contention of the accused was wrong that nothing was visible on the CCTV of the hotel around which the bus was spotted moving for more than an hour during which 23-year-old paramedic was raped and brutally assaulted by six accused including a juvenile.

Facing cross-examination for the second day, the officer who was heading the investigation and was also prime witness in the case, refuted the claim of accused that it was impossible for the CCTV to capture the view of the bus, which was relatively far away from the hotel, on the foggy winter night.

The sub inspector, posted at south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar police station here, told additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna that the description given by the victim’s male friend in his complaint matched with the bus seen in the CCTV footage.
“We had seen the CCTV footage of December 16, 2012 and we continued watching till we found the traces of the bus involved in the incident. It is wrong to suggest that nothing was visible in the CCTV coverage as December 16 night was foggy due to winter season.

“No other white colour bus except the bus in which incident took place passed on that road during the relevant period, as seen in the CCTV footage,” the IO said, whose cross examination will continue on Thursday. She is the last prosecution witness in the case in which four persons – Vinay, Akshay, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh are facing trial for allegedly gang raping a paramedic student in a moving bus here.
The IO was replying to the query put by the counsel for accused Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur that the CCTV footage was doctored and that many buses crossed the area that night. She said the video footage was not fabricated and no other bus in the name of ‘Yadav’ passed on the incident night.

On the defence charge that the site plan was not prepared by her and it was drafted at the police station, the IO said, “It is correct that the site plan was not prepared in my hand writing. It is in the hand writing of some staff member whose name I do not remember now. It is also correct that I had not made any witness to the said site plan, not even the officer who drafted this site plan.It is wrong to suggest that I had not visited the said place or that the site plan was prepared later on, in the police station or for that reason it does not bear the signature of any witness,” the IO added.