Dec 16 gangrape: DDA official says accused not present in park

A DDA official today told a special court here that the claim of two December 16 gangrape case accused that they were attending a musical function at a DDA park on the night of the incident is false as the civic agency does not allow any such event in that park.
The prosecution brought the DDA official as its witness to counter the claim of Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta, who in their statements had said that they were not in the bus in which the 23-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped.
Their relatives who had deposed as defence witnesses in the case had also said that the two were not in the bus.

"We have a district park in Hauz Khas, opposite IIT gate, adjoining R K Khanna Tennis Stadium. This area is a protected forest. As per norms prescribed in the Forest Act, no public function is allowed to be held in the park nor any permission qua such function has ever been given.
"On December 16, 2012 no such function was held in the park nor any large gathering of persons, much less of 300 took place in it," the DDA official told additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna.
During recording of the statement of DDA official and two members of the Church, who appeared as prosecution witnesses in the court, special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, said that neither the DDA nor the Church had organised any function in the park on December 16 night and the accused had committed the crime in the bus along with other four co-accused, including a juvenile.

The court on August 8 had issued summons to the three witnesses after police moved an application under section 311 of CrPC, contending that they need to call material witnesses to establish that these two accused were not in the park and were present in the bus on the night of the incident.