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.

Delhi gang-rape victim’s body to be flown back to India today

The 23-year-old girl, who put up a brave battle for life after she was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a Delhi bus on December 16 that had created a nationwide outrage, died on Saturday morning in a hospital here.

The girl, who was admitted to the well-known multi-organ transplant facility Mount Elizabeth Hospital here on Thursday morning in an extremely critical condition, breathed her last at 4:45 am (2:15 am India time). She was earlier treated at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi condoles death of Delhi gang-rape victim.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal tweeted this morning: “Aren't we all responsible for her death? Can we all now do something so that half of humanity starts feeling safe amongst us?...Her death is a matter of shame and sorrow for all of us. Let's resolve that we will not let her death go in vain”.

Reports say that JNU students will take out a silent march following Delhi gang-rape victim’s death.



Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he was deeply saddened by the demise of the victim. “We tried our best to provide her the best possible health care...Government is committed to seek deterrent punishment for all the accused”.

President Pranab Mukherjee 'deeply distressed by the unfortunate demise of the 23-year-old girl'.

Condoling the death of Delhi gang-rape victim, Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath appeals for calm, saying mindset of society needs change.

The body of the Delhi gang-rape victim, who died this morning, will be flown to India by a special chartered aircraft this afternoon, announced Indian High Commissioner to Singapore TCA Raghavan.

Delhi Police will invoke murder charges against the six men allegedly involved in the gang-rape and brutal assault of the girl in a moving bus after she died in a Singapore hospital 13 days after treatment.

Reacting to the news of the death of the gang-rape victim, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said it was a shameful moment not just as the CM but also as a citizen of the country.

Ten Metro stations - Pragati Maidan, Mandi House, Barakhamba Road, Rajiv Chowk, Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Race Course, Khan Market and Jorbagh - will remain closed.

Fearing large-scale protests following the death of the gang-rape victim, Delhi Police announced that India Gate and its surrounding areas that comprise the capital's power centre would be out of bounds for the general public.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled the death of the Delhi gang-rape victim and expressed the hope that the entire political class and civil society will set aside narrow sectional interests and agenda to make India a demonstrably safer place to live in.

The Singapore government condoled the death of the Delhi gang-rape victim, who breathed her last at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital this morning.

The 23-year-old girl, who was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a Delhi bus a fortnight ago, died early this morning in a hospital in Singapore.

Delhi gangrape victim reaches Singapore for treatment

The 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim, who was flown out to Singapore in an air ambulance for specialised treatment, was admitted to the Mount Elizabeth hospital Thursday morning. The plane carrying the girl landed at the Changi International Airport at 7.30 am.

Indian High Commission in Singapore said, confirming the girl's arrival.

The decision to shift the girl was taken at the highest level of the government.

On December 16, the girl was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus and was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi.

The girl, who continues to remain in a critical condition, remained on ventilator support during most part of her treatment in Delhi.

The victim fighting for her life in a Delhi hospital was whisked away to Singapore on Wednesday night in a move to better her chances and limit any outburst of fury in a volatile Capital.

The girl, who was brutally assaulted by six men in a moving bus ten days ago and dumped on the roadside to die, has been battling acute infection and a clot in the heart. Her stomach has been cut open twice and her small intestines have been removed.

She was taken from Safdarjung Hospital to Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal 1D airport at 10.30 pm and boarded a chartered 12-seater aircraft an hour later from Delhi airport. With her were her parents, two relatives, two nursing staff and two doctors. Prior to the move, three police vans and two cars full of policemen kept watch outside the hospital.

People and media persons gather outside Safdarjung Hospital where the Delhi gangrape survivor is admitted in New Delhi. She is being taken to Singpore for better treatment.

People and media persons gather outside Safdarjung Hospital where the Delhi gangrape survivor is admitted in New Delhi. She is being taken to Singpore for better treatment.

The girl, a physiotherapist, comes from a lower-middle-class family, with her father having sold his ancestral land to fund her studies. The family did not have passports, and the government arranged these, along with visas for Singapore at top speed.

An ambulance carrying the Delhi gangrape survivor to the airport. She is being taken to Singpore for better treatment.

The girl will be treated at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital, one of Asia’s best centres for organ transplants, sources said. It is the same hospital where politician Amar Singh and southern superstar Rajinikanth underwent treatment.

Earlier, doctors described her health as “critical” but “a shade better”. “She is certainly not out of danger and continues to remain on ventilator, but her parameters have improved,” said Dr Sunil Jain, senior surgeon at the hospital.

Doctors said the girl was communicating meaningfully and was “very optimistic about her future”.

The rape and the government's leaden-footed response to it led to unprecedented protests near the seat of power in Delhi, forcing a lockdown of the city's administrative district.

Security was stepped up across Delhi on Wednesday, especially near government buildings. A debate raged on the penalty for rape and whether Delhi's cops should report to the chief minister instead of the central home ministry. Calls for the police chief to go have also gained momentum, though indications are that the Centre will back him for now.

Amanat's' condition deteriorated last night, improves today

The 23-year-old medical student who was brutally gang-raped last week in a moving bus in Delhi, is better, say doctors, but is still in critical condition. She still has fever. Her bleeding has stopped and though she is still on the ventilator, the support has been reduced. Her statement was recorded a second time yesterday. Delhi is calmer after a week of angry protests against the savage assault on the young woman, and nine metro stations near India Gate that had been closed for three days, are open today, as are radial roads leading into India Gate.

US agency to fund NDPL's smart grid technology

Tata-backed north Delhi discom NDPL and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) on Thursday announced the signing of a pact wherein USTDA will extend a financial grant of US $ 686,447 to NDPL towards implementation of the smart grid technology in its distribution network of North & North-West Delhi.

According to senior officials, NDPL is one of the first Indian utilities to initiate implementation of smart grid technology. Sunil Wadhwa, managing director of NDPL said: "We welcome the association with USTDA. The smart grid solutions are designed to enhance the efficiency and reliability of power distribution and to increase the ability of consumers to manage and use energy in a more cost-effective and energy- efficient way. It will also enable us to optimize our power line grid planning, operations and maintenance, enabling us to deliver power more efficiently.