Delhi gang-rape: Relative refutes claims of concocted story

New Delhi: A relative of an accused in the December 16 gang-rape case has refuted Delhi police`s claim in a special court that she concocted a false story at the behest of their lawyer that he had taken a train to Bihar a day before the incident and was not involved in the crime.

Accused Akshay Thakur`s elder sister-in-law, who came in court to depose as a defence witness, also declined the police claim that the accused had not boarded the train on December 15, 2012 from Delhi to his native village and was in the bus in which the girl was gang-raped on December 16. Akshay in his statement had claimed that he had left for his native village in Bihar a day before the incident, so he was not in the bus at the time of the incident. "It is incorrect to suggest that I have concocted a false story about my travelling with Akshay on December 15, 2012 as per legal advice given to us. It is incorrect to suggest that I am deposing falsely," she told Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna. Corroborating Akshay`s alibi, she also said that the accused is "innocent and is falsely implicated". The woman, in her statement stated that "since my husband was having some work, so he did not join in the journey, instead my brother-in-law (Akshay) joined me and went with me and my son to the village on December 15, 2012". Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, however, said that the witness had boarded the train on December 15 but with her own husband and kid and Akshay was not with them. "Accused Akshay had not accompanied the witness on December 15, 2012. He was present in Delhi on December 16, 2012 and was part of the group who had gang-raped the girl and had also assaulted her male friend with an iron rod," the prosecutor contended. PTI