Trial begins, family wants death for juvenile

"I believe that all boys who have attained the age of 14 are conscious of their acts and cannot be treated as juvenile. And we demand that all the accused who are involved in a crime this heinous should be given the death sentence," said the brother at a press conference.

The father urged that his daughter be treated as a "braveheart" rather than a victim. "I have stopped reading newspapers and watching television. I hate it when they keep calling her a victim. She has sacrificed herself, started a revolution. She laid her life so that the world could wake up to the rights of women," he said.

He also thanked the BJP for naming a science museum after her. The party said it had got a written undertaking from the family to use her name for the centre. The father said the family had asked the Delhi BJP chief to do something in her memory. "We were glad to authorise them. She should get her deserved place in society," said the father.

The press conference was called by the BJP to announce the museum.

Asked about the J S Verma report, both the father and brother said they were ignorant of the committee's recommendations and said all they wanted to hear was awarding of death penalty to the six who attacked their family member.

The father revealed that the visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi had come as a surprise. "We had been putting in requests to meet them but we did not expect them to come to us in person," added the father.

At the trial that began Tuesday at the special fast-track court of Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, the victim's friend, who was present with her at the time of the gangrape and was badly beaten up, gave his testimony. The bus in which the gangrape took place was also brought to the court house.

The 28-year-old software engineer came to court in a wheelchair owing to his injuries, and was examined by the court for over four hours. Sources said the police also filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case, with the deceased girl's postmortem report and other medical reports, before the court.

The fast-track court had earlier invoked provisions of Section 327 of the CrPC to ban the media from "printing or publishing any matter related to the proceedings" in the gangrape case. The trial is being held in camera and no reporters or any other persons not directly connected to the case are allowed inside the courtroom. The judge has also banned lawyers in the case from speaking to the media or giving public statements.

Calling their press meet strictly "non-political", BJP chief Vijender Gupta announced the naming of the R K Puram science museum after the victim, adding that it would be renovated with a budget of Rs 20 crore. Mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation Rajesh Gehlot was present at the press conference.

Gupta also urged the two other corporations of Delhi, East and North, to dedicate one major project to the victim.

ALSO READ

India and China ask Special Representatives to work on more border steps

Rs 20L seized from Ajit Chandila relative's home, another ex-cricketer held

Premier Li arrives on Sunday, PM likely to seek early resumption of border talks

Laptops, footage seized, Sreesanth in fresh trouble