Dec 16 gang rape: Two convicts say arrest process not followed

Two convicts in the Dec 16, 2012 gang rape case told the Delhi High Court Wednesday that police did not follow the proper procedure while arresting them.

M.L. Sharma, counsel for convicts Mukesh and Pawan Kumar Gupta, said his clients were arrested on the basis of media reports.

Delhi Police arrested them without having any evidence in hand, the defence counsel told the bench of justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani.

The lawyer also said Mukesh, brother of main accused Ram Singh, was arrested from a village in Rajasthan a day after the incident took place in Delhi, but police showed they arrested him Dec 18.

The lawyer's arguments will continue Thursday.

The trial court Sep 13 awarded death sentences to Mukesh, 26, Akshay Thakur, 28, Pawan Gupta, 19, and Vinay Sharma, 20, and referred the case to the high court for confirmation of their sentence.

The 23-year-old woman was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus by six people, including a juvenile. The accused then threw her and her male companion out of the vehicle, stripped of clothing, to die by the roadside on the cold December night.

The woman died of grave intestinal injuries Dec 29 at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where she was airlifted for specialised treatment.

One of the six accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi's Tihar Jail. A juvenile involved in the crime was Aug 31 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years, the maximum term under the juvenile law.