Two of the four death row convicts in the December 16 gangrape case on Monday claimed before the Delhi High Court that police had registered the FIR on the basis of a “false” story narrated by the girl’s male friend against them about the incident exactly a year ago.
Appearing for convicts Mukesh and Pawan Kumar Gupta before the bench of justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani, which is holding hearing on the confirmation of death sentence to the four, advocate M.L. Sharma alleged that the police had registered the FIR on the basis of the statement given by the male friend of the girl but not by her.
Contending that the present FIR and the subsequent proceedings against his clients were illegal, he also said that prosecution had failed to videograph the girl’s statement in the hospital and police had not given any justification as to why the girl’s complaint was not registered.
Questioning the medical evidence, the counsel referred to Karnataka Dental Lab’s report about the bite marks on the victim’s body and argued that out of six, only two bite marks have matched with two of the accused.
He said that to shield four other persons, police had framed the convicts in the case.
The lawyer will continue the argument on Tuesday.
The police had initially arrested six persons, including a juvenile. However, main accused Ram Singh was found hanging in his cell at Tihar, so the proceedings against him stood abated.
The juvenile was handed three years at the correction home prescribed under the Juvenile Justice Act. The adult accused Akshay, Vinay, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh were sentenced to death by a trial court in September.
On September 13, while awarding capital punishment to Mukesh, Akshay, Pawan and Vinay, the trial court had referred the case to the high court for confirmation of the sentence.
