SC designates District Judge Dharmesh Sharma to hold trial in Unnao cases

The Supreme Court on Thursday designated the court of Tis Hazari (West) District Judge Dharmesh Sharma as the competent court to hold trial in five criminal cases relating to the sensational Unnao rape case.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, which transferred the five cases from a CBI court in Lucknow to Delhi on Thursday, decided on the name of the district judge during in-chamber deliberations.

"Taking into account the grounds set out in transfer petitions... and the facts stated in the letter dated July 12, 2019 addressed to the Chief Justice of India on the administrative side, we order for transfer of the following cases from the CBI Court, Lucknow to the competent court in Delhi that is the court of Dharmesh Sharma, District Judge, West, Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi," the bench said in its order.

Besides transferring the five cases, including the rape case, the apex court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete within seven days the probe in the fifth case, relating to last Sunday's road accident in which the 19-year-old rape survivor and her lawyer were critically injured and two of her aunts killed.