Did not see the Dec 16 gangrape victim: accused tells judge

One of the accused in December 16 gangrape case today claimed before a special court here that he had never seen the 23-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by six persons in a moving bus and had only heard about it.
Accused Akshay Thakur in his statement before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna also said he was not among the group of men who had raped the girl and assaulted her male friend.
"I have already said that I was not present in Delhi as I had left for my village on December 15, 2012.
"If I was not in Delhi, then how is it possible that I was a member of the group? Even I don't know the girl and have never seen her," Akshay told the judge.

He denied the allegation of the prosecution that the victim had in her statement written his name.
"The girl had not written my name. The writing/statement is fabricated by Delhi police official," the accused said, adding the SHO of Vasant Vihar police station here had told him in the lock-up that "the number of accused in the case is completed".

As per the police, on December 16, a female physiotherapy intern was beaten up and gangraped in a bus in which she was travelling with her male friend who was also brutally attacked with an iron rod.
There were six others in the bus, including the driver, Ram Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh all of whom had raped the girl, it had said.

The victim died of her injuries on December 29 last year while undergoing treatment in a Singapore Hospital.
During the trial, Ram Singh was found dead in Tihar jail on March 11 and court proceedings against him stand abated.
The sixth accused, a juvenile, faced an inquiry before the juvenile justice board here.