singapore hotel: Indian gang rapists left victim for dead and then "used her clothes in bonfire ...

Five of the suspects arrive at fast-track court for opening arguments
At least two of the men accused expecting to plead ‘not guilty’
Police say attackers ‘destroyed evidence and divided victims’ belongings’
One defendant ‘named the other five including his younger brother’
DNA evidence ‘found on attackers’ clothes and clumps of victim’s hair’
Attackers ‘pretended to be passengers on bus and lured couple in’
Government panel concludes Indian rape police are ‘apathetic’
Gag order on lawyers not to reveal what happens inside court
Juvenile suspect faces 3 years in a reform facility if convicted

By
Sean O’hare

PUBLISHED:

03:46 EST, 24 January 2013

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UPDATED:

10:30 EST, 24 January 2013

Five men on trial for the fatal gang rape of a student on a New Delhi bus warmed up by burning her clothes after they had left her for dead, a police file reveals.

The file seen by The Times claims the accused then divided up the belongings of the 23-year old and her male friend and tried to destroy evidence by cleaning the bus and hiding their own clothes.

Today’s opening arguments by the prosecution lawyers took place within a courtroom closed to the public and media, in a special fast-track court set up just weeks ago to handle sexual assault cases.

The accused facing a maximum sentence of death by hanging if convicted.

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A Delhi police van, believed to be carrying the five accused of the gang rape and murder of a student, leaves the Delhi Saket court today. Prosecutors presented charges of murder, rape, kidnap, and destruction of evidence

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Indian Delhi police personnel are pictured outside Saket district court complex in New Delhi today as a fast-track court heard legal arguments against the five accused

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An activist removes the mask of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after police asked her to leave as she tried to stage a protest outside the Saket district court complex where the trial is being hosted

At least two of the men accused of
the rape and murder are expected to plead not guilty to all charges
against them. A sixth suspect says he is a juvenile and is expected to
be tried in a juvenile court.

Police were on alert outside the
sprawling court complex in south New Delhi as the suspects arrived with
their faces covered by woolen caps.

Inside the court, about 30 policemen
blocked access to the room where the trial was to be held, while scores
of journalists and curious onlookers crowded the hallway.

The
suspects were whisked into the courtroom by a phalanx of armed
policemen for the start of the trial and two hours later, after proceedings were over, they were driven away by the police

Details of the day’s proceedings were not available. The courtroom was closed to the public and the media even though defence lawyers had argued that since the victim is dead, the proceedings should be opened.

There was also a gag order on the lawyers to not reveal what happened inside the court.

The police’s file on the attack contains details of the operation mounted by Delhi police to catch the attackers and the alleged attempts by the accused to destroy evidence.

The documents reveal how police tracked down the bus on which the attack took place after detectives spotted it on an airport hotel’s CCTV, speeding away from where the victim and her male friend were dumped.

Testimonies from two rickshaw drivers allege that the attackers burned the victims’ clothes in a bonfire lit close to where the bus was parked.

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Indian women hold up knives that were distributed by the Shiv Sena party, in Mumbai, India, yesterday. The knife distribution was organised to raise awareness of the need to protect and empower women

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A government panel yesterday criticised the ‘apathy’ of police and officials and recommended
India strictly enforce sexual assault laws, commit to speedy
rape trials and change antiquated penal code to protect women

The police papers say that despite the attackers’ efforts
to clean the bus, substantial blood stains remained and further DNA
evidence was obtained when detectives found bundled clothing worn by the
men on the night of the attack, along with clumps of the victim’s hair.

HOW VICTIMS’ POSSESSIONS WERE ‘DIVIDED AMONG THE ATTACKERS’

An alleged confession by bus driver Ram Singh, 33, recovered from the police’s file on the case, states that his brother Mukesh Singh, 28, was given one mobile phone while gym instructor Vinay Sharma, 20, was handed another, along with the male victim’s shoes.

Akshay Kumar Singh, 28, took the student’s rings, 18-year-old Pawan Gupta took a watch and 1,000 rupees (£12), and a juvenile was said to have taken a bank card and a small amount of cash.

The
bus driver, Ram Singh, tried fleeing his slum when
detectives caught up him but later confessed and gave police five
other names, including that of his younger brother, according to the police documents,

His alleged confession includes how the men split the victims’ mobile phones, money, jewellery, bank card and even the male victim’s Hush Puppies shoes.

Mobile phone records are said to place the attackers on the route taken by the bus during the attack.

An alleged confession by the juvenile suspect states that the men pretended to be fellow passengers to lure the couple onto the bus before the bus doors were locked and each of the men ‘took it in turn to do the wrong act.’

An iron rod was used first to beat the male victim and then used on the student to inflict massive internal injures of which she died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

They were both then dumped naked on the side of the road.

The trial will be conducted in a
closed court room after Judge Yogesh Khanna denied a defence motion to
make the proceedings public.

After the fast-track court hearing, M.L.
Sharma, a defence lawyer for Mukesh Singh, one of the accused, said he
had withdrawn from the case.

V.K. Anand, who represents Mukesh’s brother
Ram Singh, will now defend both brothers. The two lawyers had been
arguing over who was Mukesh Singh’s real lawyer.

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Accused: Ravidas camp, the slum where four of the six accused by police in the Delhi gang rape case, are reported to live

Sharma said he left the case to save his client from being tortured to
fire him. He has long maintained that the other defence lawyers were
planted by the police to ensure guilty verdicts.

The hearing will resume Monday to allow for tomorrow’s public holiday in India.

A magistrate separately rejected a petition by Subramanian Swamy, a prominent politician, that no leniency be shown toward the accused who claims to be a juvenile because of the brutal nature of the crime, said Jagdish Shetty, an aide to Swamy.

Documents presented by prosecution last week to the Juvenile Justice Board indicated that the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the attack, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty.

Magistrate Geetanjali Goel is expected to rule on the suspect’s age on Jan.28.

The suspect would face three years in a reform facility if convicted as a juvenile.

The trial began a day after a government panel criticised the ‘apathy’ of police and officials and recommended India strictly enforce sexual assault laws, commit to holding speedy rape trials and change the antiquated penal code to protect women.

The panel appointed to recommend suggestions to overhaul the criminal justice system’s handling of violence against women, received a staggering 80,000 suggestions from women’s and rights groups and thousands of ordinary citizens.

Among the panel’s suggestions were a ban on a traumatic vaginal exam of rape victims and an end to political interference in sex crime cases.

It has also suggested the appointment of more judges to help speed up India’s sluggish judicial process and clear millions of pending cases.

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Anger: Indian protesters hold candles during a rally in New Delhi last month following the death of the gang rape victim

Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said the government would take the recommendations to the Cabinet and Parliament.

GANG RAPE VICTIM WHO DREAMED OF BECOMING A DOCTOR SCORED 72% IN LAST EXAM OF HER LIFE

The aspiring doctor, 23, secured a First in her fourth and final year medical exams at the Sai Institute in Dehradun shortly before she was raped and murdered, her University has revealed.

She featured in a list of high-achieving students compiled by Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand, after she scored 800 out of a possible 1,100 marks, India Today reported.

She scored: 124/200 in Physiotherapy in Orthopaedics; 147/200 in Physiotherapy in neurology; 151/200 in Physiotherapy in Cardiothoracic Conditions; 144/200 in Physiotherapy in General Gedicine; 160/200 in Physiotherapy in Clinical Dissertation; and 74/100 in Research Methodology.

The head of her former institute Harish Arora pledged to hand back the 1,80,000 (£2,100) rupees paid by the girl’s family in fees.

‘Procedural inadequacies that lead to inordinate delays need to be addressed,’ he told reporters.

Weeks of protests following the attack
on the 23-yerar-old student last month prompted the Indian government to
set up the special court to deal swiftly with crimes against women.

The mother of the young student has reportedly called for the men who murdered her daughter to be hanged.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, she said: ‘My soul will never know any rest if the men who tormented my daughter are not hanged.’

The
46-year-old also spoke of how her daughter, a physiotherapy student,
whispered, while on her death bed, that she wanted them ‘burnt alive’.

The lawyers’ association in the
district of Saket, where hearings in the case are being held, reportedly
refused to defend the accused because of the outcry the crime has
provoked.

Suggestions by various public figures that women themselves can be partly to blame for being raped have also caused anger.

Most
recently the popular guru Asharam, known to his followers as ‘Bapu’ or
father, told followers that the tragedy would not have happened if the
victim had chanted God’s name and fallen at the feet of the attackers.