Robbery case on gangrape accused:Argument on charges from May1

Arguments on framing of charges in a robbery case involving December 16 gangrape accused will commence from May 1 in a Delhi court.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Daya Prakash today fixed May 1 for hearing the arguments on framing of charges in the case which was yesterday transferred to the sessions court by a magistrate.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain had transferred the case to the sessions court as the offences for which the accused have been chargesheeted are exclusively "triable" by a sessions judge.

The police had earlier provided documents, filed along with the charge sheet, to the advocates for the accused.

The six persons, including a juvenile, had allegedly beaten and robbed a carpenter before raping and assaulting a 23-year-old girl in the moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, last year. The victim later died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.

Accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail on March 11. The juvenile is facing proceedings in the case before the Juvenile Justice Board.

The trial against the four accused in the gang rape case is being conducted on a day-to-day basis by a special fast track court here which has already examined over 60 witnesses.

The magistrate, on March 15, had taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the police in the robbery case.

The police in its 15-page charge sheet in the case has alleged that bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh, along with the juvenile, had snatched 35-year-old carpenter Ram Adhar's mobile phone and Rs 1,500 after luring him into the bus.

The accused have been booked for the offences under sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person), 342 (wrongfully confining any person), 394 (person voluntarily causing hurt in committing or attempting to commit robbery), 395 (dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property knowing that it was obtained by dacoity) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Proceeding against Ram Singh have abated following his death.