Robbery case: Advocate absent, arguments to start from July 15

Arguments on framing of charges in a robbery case involving the December 16 gangrape accused could not commence today in a Delhi court due to absence of defence lawyer prompting the judge to appoint a government counsel for them to avoid further delay.
Additional Sessions Judge Daya Prakash said the case was getting delayed due to the lawyer's absence and appointed legal aid counsel to represent the accused.
The court fixed July 15 for hearing arguments on framing of charges against accused Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh.
The six persons, including a juvenile, had allegedly beaten up and robbed a carpenter before raping and assaulting a 23-year-old girl in the moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, last year. The victim died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.

Accused Ram Singh had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail on March 11. The juvenile is facing proceedings in the gang rape and murder case before Juvenile Justice Board.
During the hearing, the court directed the investigating officer to give a photocopy of charge sheet of the robbery case to Vinay after he submitted that he has lost it during transit in the prison van.

The trial against the four accused in the gang rape case is being conducted on a day-to-day basis by a special fast track court here.
The police, in its 15-page charge sheet filed on March 15 in the robbery case, has alleged that bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh, along with the juvenile, had snatched 35-year-old carpenter Ram Adhar's mobile phone and Rs 1,500 after luring him into the bus.

The accused have been booked for the offences under sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person), 342 (wrongfully confining any person), 394 (person voluntarily causing hurt in committing or attempting to commit robbery), 395 (dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property knowing that it was obtained by dacoity) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
Proceedings against Ram Singh have been abated following his death.