Delhi Airport Metro Express resumes service

The Delhi Airport Metro Express, developed under public-private partnership, today resumed commercial operations,nearly six months after it was shut down on grounds of safety. Reliance Infra, which runs the service, had on Monday announced that the Metro line will begin service from today.

The Airport Express Line provides connectivity from New Delhi Railway Station to Indira Gandhi Airport (T3) terminating at Dwarka Sector 21. Passengers arriving at or boarding flights from Terminal-1 can also avail this service from Aerocity Station.

Passengers can travel on the line at a discounted fare of Rs. 30 per trip on Tuesday, Reliance Infra said in a statement yesterday. The Airport Express Line would run from 5.30 am to 11.30 pm daily at a frequency of 15 minutes, the company added.

Baggage check-in for both national and international travel would start shortly, the company said.

In addition to single journey tokens, the Airport Line has introduced new products in the form of Return Journey Tokens and Sunday/Holiday discount tokens while retaining the Monthly passes for regular commuters.

The Delhi Airport Metro line started its commercial operation in February 2011, but services had to be suspended in July 2012 because of defects in civil structures.

"These defects have since been rectified by DMRC and the line was offered for re-inspection to the Commissioner Metro Rail Safety in December 2012...a formal clearance for commercial operation was received on January 18, 2013," the statement from Reliance Infra said on Monday.

The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) last week gave clearance certificate to the swanky high-speed line, which took 18 minutes for the 23-km journey from New Delhi Railway Station to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The same journey by road would take upwards of an hour.

However, now the trip will take more time, as the CMRS has given permission to operate the high-speed line only at 50 kmph.

Before the service's suspension, the trains were running at a speed of 105 kmph.

No safety in Capital, it must be restored: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today expressed concern over the recent brutal gangrape and murder in Delhi saying there is no safety in the Capital as such incidents are happening repeatedly.

"There is no safety in the city and it has to come back," a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said while pointing out that December 16 incident was not an isolated one and "it is being repeated in the city.

Rape victim at fault, should have begged assaulters: Asaram Bapu

Spiritual Guru Asaram Bapu has landed himself in a controversy over his remark that the December 16 Delhi gang rape victim is as guilty as those responsible for the barbaric sexual assault on her. "Only 5-6 people are not the culprits. The victim daughter is as guilty as her rapists...

She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop... This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don't think so," Media reports quoted Asaram Bapu, as saying.

According to media reports, the self-proclaimed godman further said that he is against harsher punishments for the accused as the law could be misutilised.

"We have often seen such laws are made to be misutilised... Dowry harassment law is the biggest example," he said.

The spiritual guru's remark comes at a time when the entire nation is mourning the death of the 23-year-old brave heart who died in a Singapore hospital 13 days later after the heinous crime.

Meanwhile, the five accused of the brutal gang rape will be produced before a Delhi court on Monday.

A fast track court in Delhi had earlier on Saturday taken cognizance of the chargesheet filed against the five accused by the Delhi Police. The court had asked the Delhi Police to produce all the five accused, Ram Singh, Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur on January 7.

Delhi Police had earlier on Thursday filed its chargesheet in the Saket metropolitan magistrate court against five men arrested in the case, slapping on them murder, rape, kidnapping and other charges.

The five accused have been chargesheeted for the offences of murder, gang rape, attempt to murder, kidnapping, unnatural offences, dacoity, hurting in committing robbery, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.

The sixth accused is a juvenile and proceedings against him will be conducted by the Juvenile Justice Board.

The victim's father has demanded that the juvenile should be hanged like the other five accused.

The victim, a physiotherapy student, was brutally raped and assaulted in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012. She died of her injuries on December 29, 2012 in the multi-specialty Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Her male friend, who was accompanying her that day, was also assaulted by the accused and both of them were thrown out of the bus.

Two accused want to become state witnesses in brutal gang rape

In a desperate bid to escape punishment, two of the six accused in the Delhi gangrape case today told a court that they want to become witnesses on behalf of the state while two others pleaded for legal aid.

Jyoti Kler inside her chamber after expiry of their 14-days of judicial remand, two refused to take the service of legal aid counsel and expressed their willingness to become witnesses in the gangrape-cum-murder case.

Besides the two, two who were also produced before the court, have asked for legal aid counsel in the case for their defence.

Legal experts feel that an accused cannot hope to become a witness especially in a case of heinous crime like the Delhi gangrape-cum-murder to escape punishment.

Usually in a case where investigators find it difficult to gather evidence, they could ask for an accused to become an approver to get crucial evidence and in return, the accused could get lighter sentence or escape punishment, the experts said.

The magistrate, meanwhile, extended their judicial remand till January 19, and asked them to appear before the court concerned on January 7 as per the production warrant issued to them after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed against the accused on January 3.

"All the accused persons were informed that they can seek legal aid in the case, if they have not engaged any counsel.

Two accused have refused to take service of the legal aid counsel and have submitted that they want to become witnesses on behalf of the state, the magistrate said in the order dictated in the open court room after the accused were sent back to jail.

The court also said that two other accused have not engaged counsel so they want legal aid. They be provided the legal aid counsel.

"Let all the four accused persons be produced before the court concerned on January 7." The magistrate in her order said that two accused have been directed to move an appropriate application to become witnesses in the case before the court concerned.

The fifth accused arrested in the case will also be produced before a court tomorrow as he is in judicial custody till January 9.

However, the case of sixth accused - a minor - will be heard by a Juvenile Justice Board.

While the accused were produced before the judge in her chamber, she dictated the order in open court room and no direction was given by her for prohibiting any media person from publishing or printing the proceedings.

A court had taken cognisance of the charge sheet against five of the accused yesterday under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (2)(g) (gangrape), 377 (unnatural offences), 395 (dacoity), 396 (murder in dacoity), 394 (hurting in dacoity), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120-B (conspiracy), 34 (common intention) and 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC.

The victim, a paramedical student, was brutally raped and assaulted in a moving bus here on the night of December 16 and died of her injuries on December 29 in multi-speciality Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Police to file chargesheet today in Delhi gangrape 2012

The Delhi Police will on Thursday submit its 1000-page chargesheet in the brutal gangrape and murder case of a 23-year-old girl before a Metropolitan Magistrate court. Once the Metropolitan Magistrate court takes cognizance of the case, it will move to the designated fast-track court in Delhi. The chargesheet is also likely to be shown to the Chief Justice of High Court in the morning.

The chargesheet will be submitted in a sealed envelope before the Metropolitan Magistrate and the fast-track court will hold an in-camera trial in the case. The statement given by the braveheart to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, while she was undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital, and by her friend are slated to be the key evidence to nail the six accused in the barbaric case.

The hearing in the gangrape case will take place on a day-to-day basis with no adjournments at a fast-track court, which was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India at Saket on Wednesday. The prosecution has said that it will try to finish the trial in a month even as the Saket District Court Bar Association on Wednesday passed a resolution saying none of the lawyers would defend any of the accused in the brutal gangrape case.

While inaugurating the fast-track courts at Saket, the Chief Justice of India had sharp words for the police and a word of caution for protesters. He said, "If the Supreme Court directive to remove tinted glasses (from buses) was followed strictly, this may not have happened." He further said: "Some people are demanding that we should hang them immediately. But we must balance things. Let us not get carried away. We must restore the faith of the people in the judiciary."

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Commissioner on Wednesday appeared before the Parliament Committee on Women Empowerment and announced that every police station in the city will have one designated policeman to deal with crimes against women. Both the government and the police have been under a lot of pressure since the gangrape case of the paramedical student came to light. There have been protests across the nation demanding stricter laws for sexual offences and harsher punishments for accused.

The Delhi Police has readied a 1000-page chargesheet and will be citing 30 witnesses in the case. In the chargesheet, the police have mentioned the entire sequence of events from the time the prime accused, Ram Singh, and five others had a party at their place and then took the bus out at night just to earn a few bucks to buy more alcohol. Apart from Ram Singh, while one of the accused is a minor, the others are Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh and Akshay Singh alias Thakur.

According to the chargesheet, the girl and her friend got into the bus at the Munirka bus stop, after which some of the accused made lewd comments and it led to an argument between the two groups. As the argument got heated, the girl and the boy were assaulted by the accused. While the boy was hit with a rod, the girl was gangraped.

All the six accused in the case have been booked for dacoity, gangrape, murder and destruction of evidence. The police have decided to ask for the maximum punishment for the accused in the case. However, one of the accused is a minor and he will be produced before a juvenile justice board and can be sent to a children's home for a maximum of three years. The police, meanwhile, have decided to go for a bone marrow test of the sixth accused to determine his real age.

For evidence, the police will be using statements of the girl and her friend, girl's ATM cards and jewellery and the medical report which says the injuries were grievous enough to cause death. They also have the CCTV footage and forensic evidence picked up from the bus.

The police have also arrested Dinesh Yadav - the owner of the bus in which the crime was committed - for violating rules to get permit. The police registered a case of cheating against him and picked him up from his residence in Rasoolpur Nawada village near Sector 62 in Noida.

The braveheart had succumbed to her injuries at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore at 2:15 am on December 29 after struggling against all odds and fighting for her survival for 12 days. The odds were stacked against her as she had suffered significant brain injury, intestinal damage, cardiac arrests and multiple organ failure. Her small intestine had to be removed by the doctors at Safdarjung Hospital where she was under treatment for 10 days before she was airlifted to Singapore for further treatment.

The body of the braveheart was laid to rest in the national capital amid heavy deployment of Delhi Police and RAF personnel after she was brought from Singapore in a special aircraft of Air India. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh, West Delhi MP Mahabal Mishra, Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta had also attended the last rites on Sunday. Media was not allowed at the site.

The case sparked nationwide protests as people from all walks of communities, including students, professionals and NGOs from across the country came out to show their solidarity to the braveheart and demand justice for her. The protesters also called for a stronger anti-rape law to ensure that such incidents did not happen in future.

Though the protests across the country have been peaceful, on December 23, the protests had turned violent, leading to a lathicharge by the Delhi Police. While several protesters were injured, a police constable, Subhash Tomar, was admitted at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after the protests, where he died. The death of the constable sparked a controversy, with the post mortem report and the Delhi Police saying that his cardiac arrest was induced by serious injuries, and the eyewitnesses countering the claims saying the constable had suffered no injuries at all.