Nirbhaya - Prosecution

Prosecution

The male victim testified in court on 19 December 2012. The female victim recorded her statement with a sub-divisional magistrate at the Safdarjung Hospital on 21 December, in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of police.

On 21 December, the government promised to file the charge sheet "quickly" and seek the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the perpetrators. Following public outrage and a demand for a speedy trial and prosecution, on 24 December the police promised to file the charge sheet within one week. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs met on 27 December to discuss the issue, and Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar were summoned to appear. At the suggestion of the Delhi Chief Minister, the Delhi High Court approved the creation of five fast-track courts to try rape and sexual assault cases. The first of the five approved fast track courts was inaugurated on 2 January 2013 by Altamas Kabir, Chief Justice of India, in Saket court complex of South Delhi. The fast track court will conduct the trial of the accused.

On 21 December 2012, the Delhi High Court reprimanded the Delhi police for being "evasive" in a probe status report providing details of officers on patrol duty in the area covered by the bus route. A further court hearing on the matter was scheduled for 9 January 2013. The following day, the Delhi Police initiated action against three Hauz Khas police station personnel for alleged inaction on an alleged robbery of the bus on which the gang rape and assault occurred. Just before the gang rape, the accused had robbed a carpenter, Ramadhar, after picking him up in their area. On 24 December, two Assistant Commissioners of Police were suspended for failing to prevent the gang rape incident.

On 28 December the victim died from her injuries and five days later, on 3 January 2013, the police filed charges against the five adult men for rape, murder, kidnapping, destruction of evidence, and the attempted murder of the woman's male companion. If convicted, they will be eligible for the death penalty. Senior lawyer Dayan Krishnan has been appointed as the special public prosecutor.

On 9 January, a day before the case was expected to be handed over to the fast-track court for trial, Ram Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Akshay Thakur were planning to plead 'Not Guilty', according to their legal defence team. On 10 January, one suspect's lawyer, Manohar Lal Sharma, announced that his client would plead not guilty to all charges. Sharma states that the victims are responsible for the assault because they should not have been using public transportation and, as an unmarried couple, they should not have been on the streets at night. In an interview he said, "Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady. Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect." He further finds the male victim "wholly responsible" for the incident because he "failed in his duty to protect the woman".

The juvenile, Raju, will be tried separately in a Juvenile court. In the charge sheet the Delhi Police described him as the most brutal of the six accused. His role is elaborated in the 33-page charge sheet. The accused was declared as 17 years and six months old on the day of the crime by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which relied on his birth certificate and school documents. The JJB rejected a police request for a bone ossification (age determination) test for a positive documentation of his age.

On 28 January, Raju was declared to be a "minor" by the JJB, which would enable him to be released by 4 June 2013, when he attains the age of 18. According to section 16 of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, a juvenile can only be kept at a reform home till he attains 18 years of age and he cannot be sent to jail thereafter, which in effect would result in his release less than six months after the rape and murder. A petition moved by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking the prosecution of the juvenile along with the five adults accused in a fast track court because of the ghastly nature of his crime was rejected by the Juvenile Justice Board presided over by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel in New Delhi.