The justice to the victim in the infamous Uber rape case was delivered after the excruciating wait of 10 months as the accused tried to put spokes to derail trial. It took the designated fast track court considerable amount of time to deliver the verdict in Uber rape case and convict the cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav. The case that was an open and shut case from the very beginning was also dragged to Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court by the accused who wanted a hearing to recall the witnesses.
The case also witnessed a standoff during the final arguments as the case files and other records were not received by the lower court from the Supreme Court. With Tuesday’s verdict, Yadav faces a maximum of life term which under the relevant provision means imprisonment till his remaining natural life.
Yadav, who was already notorious in his village, was on a confession trip before the police during the interrogation had said that he had raped many girls previously. He was arrested on December 7 2014 for raping a woman executive working in Gurgaon and was under judicial custody since then.
The trial, since then, was conducted on daily basis in a fast track court and was conducted in a fast way during its initial days. The Delhi Police, after 19 days of the incident, filed the chargesheet in the case on December 24, 2014 which was taken up by the magistrate who took cognizance of the chargesheet on January 5 and transferred the case to Sessions Court exclusively designed for the trial of sexual offences cases.
The fast track court thus began the hearing in the case from January 7 and on January 13 charges were framed against the accused. The court began recording of evidence on January 15 and in 17 days, the court concluded recording of statement of prosecution witnesses in the case on January 31.
On February 3, Yadav’s statement was recorded as an accused in the case where he claimed innocence.
But, taking a u-turn to the proceedings, Yadav changed his counsel in the month of February and then, he moved an application seeking recalling of prosecution witnesses in the case for further cross examination on February 16, the date already fixed for final argument.
However, on February 18, Sessions Court rejected his plea and started hearing final argument in the case.
But, he challenged the trial court order, and moved the application to Delhi High court on February 23. The High court thus allowed his plea to recall some witnesses including victim for cross examination on March 4.
The victim, after being “traumatised” due to irrelevant questions being asked by defence counsel in the case in further cross examination, knocked the door of the Supreme Court on March 9. The Apex court stayed the order of Delhi High Court on March 10.
After six month of hearing, the Supreme Court on September 10 set aside the Delhi High court order permitting to recall witnesses. And, on September 23, the trial court resumed the final argument. On October 7, the trial court reserved its verdict in the case.
Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja who holds a fast track court specially meant to dispose cases relating to sexual offences on a fast track basis, delivered the order in ten months. But, the prosecution in the Uber rape case completed recording of evidence on January 31.