Men accused in Dec 16 gangrape case led us to evidence: IO to court

Ram Singh,who was found hanging in his cell in Tihar Jail in March,was the first to be arrested in the case. Later,accused Pawan Gupta,Vinay Sharma and Mukesh were apprehended.

“Vinay gave me his jeans,one jacket and full sleeve black shirt which he was wearing at that time. He also took off his rubber chappal. Thereafter,Vinay led the police party to his jhuggi at Ravi Dass Camp where a pair of Hush Puppies shoes were lying. He produced the shoe and a Nokia phone saying it was his share of the robbed property,” the witness said. Similarly,Pawan had also produced his bloodied clothes from his jhuggi.

On December 21 last year,the juvenile was apprehended from Anand Vihar bus terminal in East Delhi at the instance of Ram Singh. The last arrest in the case was Akshay Thakur,who was apprehended from Aurangabad in Bihar.

The sub-inspector said the victim’s friend,a 28-year old software engineer who was on that bus with her that night,had identified all the accused correctly. He had also identified the bus in which the crime took place.

“The complainant joined the investigation and went with me to Thyagaraj Stadium,where he identified the bus as the same which he and the victim had boarded and in which the incident had occurred,” the witness told the court.

Then they went to Select Citywalk in Saket and the CCTV footage was obtained. It showed the victim and her friend leaving the mall.

The IO said two of the accused refused to participate in the test identification parade held two days after the incident. “Accused Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma had refused to participate in the TIP proceedings before Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg,” the sub-inspector told the court.

The IO is considered to be the most crucial prosecution witness in the case as she took up the probe hours after the incident. She deposed that Mukesh had,during his police remand,pointed out the route of the bus from Munirka in South Delhi where he and other co-accused had lured the victim and her friend into the bus and later raped her.

Mukesh had also reportedly pointed out the place where the woman and her friend were thrown on the road after the incident.

Counsel for Akshay and Vinay,advocate A P Singh has filed an application requesting the judge to see the bus and its route.