The trial in the Swiss woman gangrape case began in Datia on Saturday with two prosecution witnesses recording their statements before a special court. All the six accused in the case were produced before Additional District Judge (ADJ) Jitendra Kumar Sharma, prosecution sources said.
Two prosecution witnesses out of the total six recorded their statement in the case. Jitendra Prajapati and Bhagwat Gurjar identified the belongings of the Swiss couple seized by the police from the accused. They identified laptop, laptop-charger and mobile phone among other things seized by the police. However, the Swiss couple did not arrive in the town to take part in the court proceedings. The court is likely to issue summons to them to appear before it. The next hearing in the case will be held on Monday April 1, when another prosecution witness Tapan Suryawanshi will record his statement. The 39-year-old Swiss woman was gang-raped on March 15, when she was camping along with her male companion in a tent in Datia district.
The accused allegedly saw the pair pitching their tent and attacked them. Only four of the six were charged with gang-rape because testimony from the victim said two of them were "only present at the crime scene", according to Ml Dhody, a Datia police officer.