Danish woman's gangrape: Statement of eyewitness concluded

A Delhi court today concluded recording of statement of a gardener, an eyewitness in the January last year gangrape case of 51-year-old Danish tourist in which six men are facing trial.
Shivji Singh, who was working as a gardener with Indian Railways, deposed as a prosecution witness and was also cross examined by the counsel for the six accused.
Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja fixed January 29 for recording of deposition of another prosecution witness.
Singh had yesterday identified the six men as the ones who had allegedly gangraped the woman on January 14 last year here.
He had deposed that he saw all the accused sitting nearby the foreigner lady and Mahender was committing rape upon her. All the other accused were sitting surrounding the woman and Arjun was carrying a knife in his hand, he had said.

The police, in its charge sheet, had said that the eight persons, all vagabonds, had robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014 after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers' Club near New Delhi Railway Station.

The eight accused, including two juveniles, were arrested in the case. The two juveniles are facing an inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board here.
The six adult accused -- Mahendra alias Ganja (24), Mohd Raja (22), Raju (23), Arjun (21), Raju Chakka (22) and Shyam Lal (55) are in judicial custody.

The eight have been booked under Sections 376(2)(g) (gangrape), 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 392 (robbery) of IPC.
Earlier, while Shyam Lal had claimed that he was impotent and has not raped the woman, Arjun had told the court that he was a juvenile and police had kept him in illegal detention ever since his arrest in January last year.
The court had directed the investigating officer (IO) of the case to furnish a report regarding the procedure to secure the victim's presence before the court for recording her statement in the absence of mutual legal assistance treaty between India and Denmark.

The court's direction had come after the IO had informed it that the summon issued to the woman has returned unserved as India does not have a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) with Denmark.