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Firm evidence, but case dragged on for six years
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that the evidence given by a rape victim unless proved infirm or untrustworthy is enough to nail the
accused. But still it took the trial court six years to convict four accused in connection with the gangrape of a 17-year-old Delhi university student.
In Buddha Jayanti park rape case, a valid statement was given by the victim without any contradictions. In the chargesheet filed on November 22, 2003, the police had recorded the statement of the rape victim and the medical reports mentioned in the chargesheet corroborated the offence of the accused.
Yet the case was dragged for six years before it saw its conclusion, largely because of a cumbersome judicial process and frequent adjournments in the case. In six years, the case faced lots of hurdles, some inevitable and some deliberate, which led to a protracted trial. Despite the victim’s statement, the completion of cross-examination of the girl by the defence took almost seven months.
In 2005, the documents related to the case mysteriously went missing from the court’s records, which delayed the matter for another six months as the prosecution had to reconstruct the missing evidence.
In February 2008, the case was delayed by another six months after additional sessions judge S P Garg, who was hearing the case, transferred to the Tis Hazari Court from the Patiala House district courts. Till August 2008, the case literally got stuck with dates. For six months the hearing did not move an inch in 14 hearings as the counsels for the four accused managed to get the proceedings adjourned by making them unavailable for the hearing. Even the court records had no valid reason of their absence.
The verdict, which was reserved for July 30, was finally delivered on Monday after being deferred for three times.
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