INDIA: Lawyer of accused in Delhi gang rape case says police is torturing his client
Record ID:
1377020
INDIA: Lawyer of accused in Delhi gang rape case says police is torturing his client
- Title: INDIA: Lawyer of accused in Delhi gang rape case says police is torturing his client
- Date: 14th January 2013
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (RECENT) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI - NO ACCESS BBC) POLICEMEN ESCORTING THE ACCUSED INSIDE THE COURT ACCUSED ENTERING THE COURT THE COURT
- Embargoed: 30th January 2013 22:49
- Keywords:
- Location: India
- Country: India
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA3JZ3YG7SDZLG7LXI6I3D4EB0A
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: The lawyer of one of the accused charged with the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student said on Monday (January 14) police sexually assaulted and tortured his client in custody.
The six suspects held in connection with the attack on a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus were charged with murder following her death, police said. The maximum penalty for murder is death.
Lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma is defending Mukesh, who is the brother of the main accused, Ram Singh.
Sharma said that he would base his case on police brutality meted out to his client.
"He was under torture regularly. They use a stick, they use urinating, toileting in his mouth, they were beaten badly and still they did the.. they are doing this torture through the jail inmate, during police torture he was also the victim of the unnatural sex and if this type of the cruelty will be done, any person will say yes (to) what you are saying, he will speak the same language," said Sharma.
"They have nothing in their hand except the confession, and confession is the outcome of the torture. Anybody, any civilised person will not like that torture should be used for getting the statement, and on the basis of this statement you can't hang anybody," he added.
Sharma said that Mukesh was not involved in the crime and the police had arrested him from his village and was taken to the Tihar jail.
"I have seen him in person he was sobbing like anything. He's a child, he's not a man at all. He's sobbing 'leave me, take me out from this scenario', he was sobbing 'I did nothing, I have been picked up from my village, I have been shown the witness in the police station thereafter they put me in the Tihar Jail,'" he said.
The men were arrested in the days following the December 16 attack when the bus was identified by footage on security cameras, leading police to the driver and alleged gang leader Ram Singh.
The five face various charges including murder, gang rape and abduction and prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty. A sixth suspect is being investigated separately to determine if he is below the age of 18, as he says he is.
The case has shone a light on a widespread problem of violence against women but also the failure of the criminal justice system to bring the guilty to justice in a country where official statistics show a rape is reported every 20 minutes. - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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