Delhi gang-rape case: Court orders in-camera trial

A Delhi court hearing the December 16 gang-rape-cum-murder case on Monday witnessed heated arguments between a lawyer, who sought to defend the accused, and other advocates, who vehemently objected to it even as the accused could not be produced in the overcrowded courtroom.

It is for the first time that a lawyer came forward to defend the five accused amid resolutions of various advocate bodies in the city not to represent them.

Advocate Mohan Lal Sharma appeared in the court and told metropolitan magistrate Namrita Aggarwal that he had received calls from relatives of some of the accused to defend them.

He told the court that he was unable to take signatures of the accused in 'vakalatnama' (a person's authority letter to an advocate to represent him in court) as he could not go to Tihar Jail and sought the magistrate's permission to take the the same in the court itself.

The metropolitan magistrate, however, refused him the permission and asked him to go to Tihar Jail for the purpose.

Even as the court rejected Sharma's plea, two more lawyers offered their services as amicus curiae to the court.

The metropolitan magistrate ordered in-camera proceedings in the case. No material linked to proceedings can be published without court's permission in the Delhi gang-rape case, the metropolitan magistrate said.