A relative of an accused in the December 16 gang-rape case has refuted Delhi police’s claim in a special court that she concocted a false story at the behest of their lawyer saying the accused had taken a train to Bihar a day before the incident and was not involved in the crime.
Accused Akshay Thakur’s elder sister-in-law, who came in court to depose as a defence witness, also declined the police claim that the accused had not boarded the train on December 15, 2012 from Delhi to his native village and was in the bus in which the girl was gang-raped on December 16.
Akshay in his statement had claimed that he had left for his native village in Bihar a day before the incident, so he was not in the bus at the time of the incident.
“It is incorrect to suggest that I have concocted a false story about my travelling with Akshay on December 15, 2012 as per legal advice given to us. It is incorrect to suggest that I am deposing falsely,” she told Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna.
Corroborating Akshay’s alibi, she also said that the accused is “innocent and is falsely implicated”.
The woman, in her statement stated that “since my husband was having some work, so he did not join us in the journey, instead my brother-in-law (Akshay) joined me and went with me and my son to the village on December 15, 2012”.
Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, however, said that the witness had boarded the train on December 15 but with her own husband and kid and Akshay was not with them.
“Accused Akshay had not accompanied the witness on December 15, 2012. He was present in Delhi on December 16, 2012 and was part of the group who had gang-raped the girl and had also assaulted her male friend with an iron rod,” the prosecutor contended.
Accused Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta in their statement had also claimed innocence and said they were not in the bus in which a 23-year girl was allegedly gang-raped by six men.
Co-accused Mukesh had claimed that at the time of the incident he was driving the bus and was drunk but did not rape the girl.
He, however, had indirectly supported the version of the prosecution saying that other accused —— Ram Singh (since deceased), Akshay, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and a juvenile —— were present in the bus and he heard some voices.
According to the prosecution, Ram Singh, Vinay, Pawan, Akshay and Mukesh had allegedly gang-raped the girl in a moving bus here. The victim died of injuries on December 29 last year while undergoing treatment in a Singapore hospital
