Gang-rape victim's friend's interview CD not evidence: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said Friday the CD of the interview of the Dec 16, 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim's friend to a news channel could not be produced as evidence in the trial of the case, which is on before a special fast-track court.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said this while allowing an appeal by Delhi government, challenging the Delhi High Court order, which had held that the CD of the interview could be produced as evidence by the accused.

The apex court held that the CD could not be used as evidence as the interview to the news channel was conducted after the filing of the chargesheet in the gang-rape case.

The gang-rape, in which six, including one juvenile, were accused, occurred in a moving bus in the national capital Dec 16, 2012. The victim, a 23-year-old student of physiotherapy, had taken the bus with a male companion after watching a movie. She sustained grievous injuries in the brutal assault, and died Dec 29, while under treatment at a Singapore hospital.

Her man friend had later spoken to a news channel.

One of six accused in the case, one is a juvenile.

One of the accused hanged himself to death in Tihar Jail March 11.

Hearings of this case have been conducted on a daily basis at a specially set up fast-track court.

The law pertaining to rape was also amended, to make punishment for the guilty more stringent, as a result of this crime, which saw shocked people protest on the streets across the country.