Dec 16 gangrape: accused questions victim's dying declaration

Two of the accused in December 16 gangrape case today questioned in a court here the authenticity of the girl's dying declaration being relied upon by Delhi Police as they claimed that the same was introduced by the probe agency after her death.
The counsel for accused Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur, in his final arguments before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, claimed the arrest of six accused was an after-thought and the 23-year-old paramedic had not recorded any statement before the SDM as she died on December 21, 2012.
Pointing out that there was a tug of war between Delhi Police and the city government over recording of the girl's statement by Sub-Divisional Magistrate Usha Chaturvedi, the counsel argued the judicial officer had refused to plant a false statement of the victim, who was already dead, prepared by police.

"The victim died on December 21, 2012. The police have not placed any photo of the girl in which her eyes are visible. Seeing the individual's eye in the photo, anyone can identify whether the person is dead or alive. To hide this particular fact, the police have not placed such photographs on record.
"The controversy over recording of the girl's statement broke out after the SDM refused to do what the police wanted. How is it possible that the girl who was in critical condition, as per the prosecution, has given a 4-page statement. The statement was prepared by the police," A P Singh, the counsel for Vinay and Akshay said during the second day of his arguments.

The counsel said "after the SDM raised objection, if the police were to bring out the truth, they could have recorded the girl's statement through video recording".