Crime

The Forensic report was still awaiting, still Police submitted the charge sheet of the much talked about Durgapur medical college student's gang rape case, which attracted criticism by the defense counsel and to resort to the issue, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court today granted the provisions of submitting supplementary Charge-sheet in the case.

 

The Court today referred the case to a higher Court sea speedy trial from tomorrow. 

 

The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubhrakanti Dhar turned down the bail petition of the accused referred the case to the Court of Additional District & Session Judge (1) for quick trial following the provisions of Section 346 (1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita that suggests day to day trial for quick disposal of the case. 

 

Meanwhile, the ACJM also referred to Section 230 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, that suggests that the Magistrate should provide copies of the documents to the accused. When the ACJM inquired whether the accused were provided Charge-sheet copies, one of the accused Riazuddin Sheikh replied: "Yesterday morning we were provided some papers, which were taken back in the evening and were further provided before being taken to the Court." 

 

Besides, the ACJM also allowed the accused to interact with their respective legal counsels from today under Section 38 of the BNSS, which they were deprived since the day they were booked by the police in phases. 

 

The entire six accused, including Wasef Ali  - the boyfriend of the victim medical student, were taken to the ACJM Court this afternoon. Wasef dressed in white T-shirt looked visibly depressed and stayed away from the group of five at the Court room.

 

The girl medical student of IQ City Medical College hailing from Jaleshwar, Odhisa here allegedly was gang raped on 10 October when she had been to the forest patch about 1 km from the college campus after 9 pm.

 

District Legal Aid Services Lawyer Pooja Kurmi, appearing for two of the accused  - Riazuddin Sheikh and Safikul Sheikh pleaded that her clients should be granted bail as they were slapped dacoity charge (Section 310 of the BNS) and were freed from the gang rape charge [Section 70 (1), 3(5) of BNS]. She pleaded: "Only the robbery Section slapped against my clients that was non bailable and trial of that couldn't be possible in ACJM Court, so they should be released on bail today." Also, she pleaded that her clients were accused of robbing mere Rs 200 from the victim's possession. Chatterjee, the Special PP opposed the bid on the argument that the charge stands equally for robbery of a single rupee or for Rs 200. He pleaded: "In the horrible minutes of traumatic scene under the darkness of the forest, this Rs 200 was equivalent to Rs 2 Crore."

 

The ACJM, however, chose to reject their bail and look for custody trial apprehending breach of peace and destruction of evidence. The 861 pages of the Charge-sheet equipped with evidence papers was submitted at the Court by the investigating officials yesterday. 

 

Today, the defendant lawyers also raised questions about the Charge-sheet on the plea that it was 'faulty and not feasible technically.'

 

Anubhav Chatterjee, lawyer pleading for Wasif Ali argued: "Once the Forensic reports were yet to arrive, how the police could prepare the Charge-sheet? Also, we were not provided required documents by the police." When the Special PP rubbished the claim mentioning the Sanjay Gandhi aircraft accident case on 1980, the ACJM granted the provisions for supplementary Charge-sheet at once. Chatterjee said: "We are not sure by what time the Forensic reports will be made available." The samples were dispatched to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata on the third day of the incident that rocked Bengal.