One of the six charged in the fatal gang-rape of a 23-old-student in a bus in New Delhi asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to shift the trial from the capital, saying a fair hearing was impossible.
Feelings are still running high in India over the brutal attack in the middle of last month that ignited violent street protests over the lack of safety for women and sparked impassioned calls for harsher laws to tackle rape.
“The sentiment has gone into the root of each home in Delhi by which even the judicial officers and state are not spared,” the petition filed by lawyer M.L. Sharma on behalf of defendant Mukesh Singh said.
“In these circumstances, he cannot get justice in Delhi at all,” the petition said.
However, lawyers said that the application was not expected to disrupt the opening, set for today, of the high-profile trial where prosecutors plan to push for the death penalty over the killing of the physiotherapy student.
Five men — aged between 19 and 35 — face murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and other charges in the trial. The case against a sixth suspect, who claims he is 17, will be heard by a juvenile court if it is confirmed he is a minor.
Last week, an Indian magistrate ordered the trial to be held in a special fast-track court to avoid delays that plague India’s clogged justice system.
One of the defense team said, on condition of anonymity, that they planned to make a representation to the Supreme Court today in connection with the petition to have the trial shifted. However, he said it would likely take at least a week for the Supreme Court to consider Singh’s plea if it agreed to hear it.
Defense lawyers say they will enter not-guilty pleas and accuse police of torturing the defendants to get them to make false confessions.
However, prosecutors say they have DNA evidence linking the defendants to the attack in which the student and her 28-year-old male companion were assaulted on a bus as they were returning home from a movie.
The prosecutors also have the victim’s hospital-bed declaration before her death and testimony from her companion who is recovering from a fracture and other injuries suffered while trying to fend off the attackers.
The woman suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault on Dec. 16 in which she was attacked with an iron bar. She died 13 days later after the government airlifted her to a Singapore hospital.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese