HC to hear tomorrow Uber cab rape accused plea witness recall

Delhi High Court today agreed to hear tomorrow the plea of the accused in the Uber cab rape case, who is seeking recall of 28 prosecution witnesses to re-examine them.
The petition was mentioned before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva who directed that it be listed before the appropriate court tomorrow.
The matter was mentioned before the bench by advocate D K Mishra, who appeared for 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav.
Mishra said the petition also challenges the trial court's order rejecting the plea for recalling the witnesses.
In the plea before the trial court, accused Yadav had sought to recall all the 28 prosecution witnesses on the ground that he was not given fair opportunity to defend himself.

However, the trial court had dismissed his plea saying there was no change in circumstances except for a change of counsel, which was no ground to allow the application.

Mishra had submitted that entire cross examination of all the prosecution witnesses conducted by the earlier counsel was "prejudicial to the interest of the accused as the previous advocate was incompetent" and he, being a "competent lawyer", was entitled to recall the witnesses and examine them again.
The trial in the case had commenced on January 15 and the prosecution had concluded recording its evidence in 17 days by examining 28 witnesses. The accused had not examined any witness in his defence.

The court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as "false".
The court on January 13 had framed charges against Yadav under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for alleged offences of endangering a woman's life while raping her, kidnapping with an intent to compel her for marriage, criminally intimidating and causing hurt.