Dec 16 gangrape:Accused' plea to make CM def witness dismissed

A Delhi court today dismissed the plea of an accused in the December 16 gangrape case to call Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit as a defence witness, saying it is an abuse of the process.
Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna refused to call the Chief Minister as a defence witness in the case on the request of Akshay Thakur, an accused.
"The request to summon the Chief Minister to prove the alleged controversy or alleged false recording of statement of the prosecutrix is nothing but an abuse of the process," the court said, which also declined the request of the accused to summon SDM Usha Chaturvedi as a defence witness.

A P Singh, counsel representing Akshay and another accused Vinay Sharma, while filing the list of witnesses had said that there was a controversy surrounding the victim's statement under Section 164 of the CrPC and the manner in which it was recorded. He had submitted that he wanted Dikshit's testimony in the case to clarify the issue.
In December last year, the SDM had claimed that three senior police officers had interfered with the recording of the victim's statement. Dikshit had written to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, demanding a probe into the matter.
"Prosecution witness (PW-27) Dr Usha Chaturvedi has already been examined/cross examined extensively. Hence, the request is declined," the court said.

It allowed Akshay's request to call as witness his family members to establish his claim that he was not in Delhi on December 16, 2012, when a 23-year-old girl was gangraped allegedly by six persons in a moving bus.
"The witness... Proposes to depose that accused Akshay left Delhi on December 15, 2012 and reached his village, in his home town on December 16, 2012.
"Since during recording of his statement, accused Akshay challenged his presence in the bus, so witness at serial no. 2 to 8 and at serial no. 11 seems to be relevant but since all of these witnesses pertain to one fact, the accused may produce any five of these witnesses in his defence," the judge said.