Delhi Police expects the trial in the infamous rape of a woman executive by a driver of US-based cab service provider, Uber, to end in a month or so after the trial court took cognisance of the chargesheet. Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Kumar Malik committed the case to a sessions court for trial and posted the matter for January 7.
“Since the chargesheet has been filed, copies have been supplied to the accused and the present matter is exclusively triable by the sessions court, I take cognisance on the chargesheet and commit the case to sessions court for January 7,” the magistrate said. Delhi Police had filed the chargesheet in the case on December 24.
Meanwhile the court also extended the judicial custody of arrested accused Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, till Wednesday. During the hearing, the court pulled up Yadav’s counsel for putting forward “useless arguments” and trying to unnecessarily delay the proceedings. The court dismissed a plea moved by the defence counsel seeking security for his client, saying, “There is no visible injury on the accused and the prosecuting authority is doing its work very well.”
Yadav, who was driving the cab, had allegedly raped the woman on the night of December 5, last year when the victim, who works for a finance company in Gurgaon, was headed back home in North Delhi’s Inderlok area. Yadav was arrested on December 7 from Mathura in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police and produced before the court on December 8.
The police had filed the chargesheet against Yadav on December 24, 19 days after the incident for alleged offences punishable under sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping or abducting woman with an intent to compel her for marriage), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) under IPC.
In the chargesheet, police had relied on the forensic evidence and also placed on record the route map of the car in which the offence was committed. Earlier, police had told the court that during Yadav’s custodial interrogation, they have recovered mobile phones and clothes, which he was wearing at the time of the offence.
Yadav had refused to undergo Test Identification Parade (TIP), saying the woman had already seen his photograph on Uber’s website and she would definitely identify him. TIP is a process under the criminal law through which a victim identifies an accused. Police had also told the court that Yadav was hired by Uber and it had not verified his antecedents and they have lodged a case of cheating against the firm.
The case will now be heard by special fast track court exclusively set up to deal with cases of sexual offences against women. While dismissing Yadav’s plea seeking additional security, the court said from the day of his arrest, he has been in the custody of local authorities and no harm has been caused to him and they have taken full care.
The court also rejected the defence counsel’s application seeking to direct the media not to run a parallel trial in the case till Yadav is exonerated or convicted in the case. During the hearing, the court also refused to give several other documents asked for by the defence counsel, saying all the documents on which the prosecution has relied have already been given to the accused.