Never set eyes on victim: Dec 16 gangrape accused

“I have already said I was not present in Delhi as I had left for my village on December 15,2012. If I was not in Delhi,then how is it possible that I was a member of the group? Even I don’t know the girl and have never seen her,” Akshay told Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna on Friday.

The 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally raped aboard a moving bus on the night of December 16,2012. Thirteen days later,the woman had succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore.

Akshay accepted that he was a helper in the bus where the rape allegedly took place,but said he had left the job a day before the incident.

A carpenter,who had allegedly been robbed in the bus prior to the alleged rape,had identified the accused in the gangrape case as the ones who robbed him.

He had told the judge that Akshay was the one who had assaulted and robbed him.

Akshay denied the carpenter’s statement and said all evidence recovered from him were planted to falsely implicate him.

“I was not given any food when I was brought to Delhi… I was beaten with iron rods… I was made to sign on 15 to 20 blank sheets of paper at gunpoint,” Akshay said.

Akshay also said police had apprehended his father and tortured his brothers.

Earlier,Akshay and another accused Mukesh had testified that they had been shown to the victim’s male friend,who was in the bus on the night of the rape,before being identified in the test identification parade.

The statements of the other accused,Pawan and Vinay shall be recorded by the court on Monday.