The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday stayed the ongoing trial in the Kopardi girl gangrape and murder case till August 3, after admitting an instant review application filed by a defence lawyer challenging the “legality, validity and propriety” of the order passed by the trial court on July 10.
In what came as a new twist to the much-discussed case, Justice Mr K K Sonawane of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court stayed for eight days the July 10 order of the trial court, after hearing the review application filed by defence lawyer Vijayalakshmi Khopade. Justice Sonawane is expected his pass his final order’s Vijayalakshmi’s plea on August 3.
It may be recalled that Ahmednagar district Sessions Judge (Mrs) Suvarna Keole had in her July 10 order rejected the defence lawyer’s plea seeking to make Public Prosecutor Nikam and five others defence witnesses in the case.
The trial court judge had also rejected the documents and electronic evidence submitted by the defeence lawyer in support of her case. Vijaylakshmi, who is representing who is representing one of the three accused in the case Santosh Bhaval, stated in her petition that the rejection of her applications seeking to make Nikam and others as defence witness resulted in “miscarriage of justice”.
While seeking quashing of the lower court’s order, the defence lawyer contended in her review application that the trial court had made “incorrect observations” on the basis of “irrelevant observations and presumptions” on law and facts. Vijayalakshmi also contended that the trial court had wrongly exercised the jurisdiction of calling upon and entertaining the Special Public Prosecutor’s reply on her plea. In her plea before the trial court, the defence lawyer had strongly for examining Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam under section 313 of Cr. PC in view of his “active participation” in the investigations in the case.
Contending that Ceaser’s wife “must be above suspicion”, Vijayalakshmi had contended that “there is a high probability of finding incriminating evidence (against him) with respect to such active role of the Prosecution in the investigation procedure of the case”.
Apart from Nikam, the five others whom the defence lawyer had wants to depose in the case as defence witnesses, are Ravindra Chavan from Pune, Dr Rajabahu J Thorat, Director, State Bureau of Health Intelligence, Pune, Dr Uday Nirgudkar, a senior journalist, Director, Forensic Sciences, Nashik and District Collector of Ahmednagar Abhay Mahajan.
The 15-year-old victim girl, who belonged to the Maratha community, was brutally raped on July 13, 2016 allegedly by three Dalits who inflicted injuries all over her body and broke her limbs before throttling her at Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district.
The fast-track court had on November 9 last year framed charges against three accused --- Jitendra alias Pappu Babulal Shinde (26), Santosh Gorkha Bhaval (30) and Nitin Gopinath Bhailume (28) --under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act for for allegedly perpetrating a sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl and strangulating her in July 2016.
The trial court also rejected the defence lawyer’s another plea to treat as evidence some documents and material submitted by her that sought to expose the “lacunae” in the investigations in the much-discussed case.
The Kopardi rape and murder case, it may be recalled, had generated considerable public interest in the state, especially after the Maratha community members – operating under the banner of Maratha Kranti Morcha – made the handing out of swift punishment to the accused in this case as one of the demands in the ongoing agitation across the state.
On October 7, the Ahmednagar police had filed a 300-page charge-sheet in a lower court against the three accused. The investigators had in all named 70 persons as witnesses in the case. Soon after the charge-sheet was filed, the court transferred the case to Additional District and Sessions Court of Ahmednagar and committed it to a fast-track trial.