Dec 16 gangrape: Court junks plea to call Sheila

Akshay,one of the six accused in the case,had on Wednesday requested the court to summon Dikshit to clarify the ‘controversy’ surrounding the manner in which the victim’s statement was recorded.

In December last year,SDM Usha Chaturvedi had claimed that three senior police officers had interfered with the recording of the victim’s statement. Dikshit had written to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde demanding a probe into the matter.

Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna dismissed the request on the grounds that Chaturvedi had already been cross-examined extensively on the issue. “The request to summon the Minister….is nothing but an abuse of the process,” the order read.

The court also dismissed the request to summon the call details of the woman and her male friend who had accompanied her on the night of the incident,the salary slips of the friend’s father and the woman’s father and the alleged criminal record of the friend’s father,on grounds that they were not relevant to the case.

Akshay had earlier told the court that he had left for his village on December 15,a day prior to the incident,and was not present at the scene of the crime.

His counsel A P Singh had requested the court to summon details of a ticket which bore names of Akshay’s brother and his brother’s wife,claiming that Akshay used that ticket to travel to his village.

The court deferred the request on the grounds that the ticket was issued in the name and for the use of Akshay’s brother.

The court,however,summoned the CCTV footage of the platform from which Akshay claimed to have boarded the train. It also allowed Akshay to present five of his relatives as witnesses next week.

On Friday,seven defence witnesses shall be examined on behalf of accused Pawan. Pawan had told the court that he was at a concert at the time of the incident.