An Ahmednagar-based trial court on Monday rejected an application made by a defence lawyer seeking to make Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam and five others defence witnesses in the much discussed Kopardi girl gangrape and murder case.
In her ruling on defence lawyer Vijayalaxmi Khopade’s plea seeking to make Nikam and five others defence witnesses in the case, Ahmednagar district Sessions Judge Suvarna Keole noted that she did not deem it necessary to accept the defence lawyer’s request and that entertaining such a request would result in unnecessary delay of the trial.
Vijayalakshmi, who is representing one of the three accused in the case, 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”.
After the rejection of her, Vijayalakshmi said that she would move the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HCagainst the trial court’s ruling.
“The ruling by the Sessions court is against the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. It is against the rulings of Supreme Court, wherein a liberal view is to be adopted for allowing defence witnesses. The trial court’s ruling has thus denied a fair trial to the accused. I will challenge the trial court’s ruling in the high court,” Vijayalakshmi told “The Pioneer” over phone in the evening.
The trial court scheduled the next hearing of the case for July 24.
Vijayalakshmi, who is representing one of the three accused in the case Santosh Bhaval, said that defence witnesses were essential to be examined to achieve justice not only for her client but also for the victim girl.
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.