Delhi Police upgrade charge to murder

New Delhi: Armed with the statement of the Delhi braveheart given to Sub Divisional Magistrate Usha Chaturvedi, Delhi Police will hope to convict the six accused in the brutal gangrape and murder case of the 23-year-old and get the maximum punishment for them. The 23-year-old paramedical student, who died at Singapore's Mouth Elizabeth Hospital on December 29 at 2:15 am, had in her statement given to the SDM given vivid details of the accused and the crime.

The statement given to a SDM under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is admissible in court and Delhi Police are planning to file the chargesheet in the case on January 3, 2013. The six men accused of raping and assaulting the braveheart, who battled for life for over 12 days, will also be charged with murder.

Police had already invoked the stringent charges of attempt to murder and destruction of evidence against the accused. Investigators had earlier pressed charges against them under sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting), 376 (2)(g) (gang rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 394 (hurting in committing robbery) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.

Now with the death of the braveheart, the police said it had charged the accused with murder too and will tell the court to treat it as the rarest of rare case. While one of the accused is a minor, the others are Ram Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur.

The five accused who are above the age of 18 years will be charged under Section 302 (murder) and could be given death penalty. Police have also sought the court's permission to get a bone marrow check to ascertain the age of the accused, who is claiming to be minor.

Two of the accused - Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur - have undergone the test identification parade while the others refused to do so. Both Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur were identified by the braveheart's male friend, a 28-year-old software engineer, who was with the girl when the horrific crime took place. Her friend was also brutally beaten up by the accused when he tried to defend and save her.