A special fast track court in the Indian capital Tuesday formally began the trial of five of the six accused in the horrific gangrape of a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in December last year, a case which shocked the country and triggered massive public outcry over the rising incidents of sexual assaults on women and the need for stringent laws against such crimes.
The fast track court began hearing evidence from witnesses in the case, less than a week after it formally framed charges against the five accused. The sixth accused, a minor below 18 years of age, will be tried according to juvenile law.
On the first day, the prosecution has called four of the over 80 witnesses, including the girl's boyfriend who was with her on the bus that night and also got beaten up by the six accused before the duo were thrown out of the vehicle.
The boyfriend, whose name has not been disclosed, came to the court on a wheel chair before the fast track judge who will now hear the case on a day-to-day basis. "My son will go to any lengths to ensure that the guilty are punished," the father of the victim's boyfriend, who accompanied him into the court complex, told the media which has been barred from reporting the proceedings by the court.
The five accused, who have been slapped with rape and murder charges among others, have denied any wrongdoing. If convicted, they could face the death penalty. The sixth accused, however, is likely to get away with lighter punishment of a maximum of three years in a reform facility after a court ruled that he is a minor.
The victim, a Delhi University student who was gangraped on Dec. 16 last year and subsequently beaten up mercilessly along with her boyfriend by the six accused before being thrown off the vehicle which they had boarded after watching a movie at a multiplex, succumbed to her injuries earlier last month at a hospital in Singapore.
Her case apparently promoted the country's Supreme Court to examine the juvenile justice act and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee to sign a new anti-rape law which has now increased the minimum sentence for those convicted of gangrape and allows the death penalty to be used in extreme cases.