Delhi gang-rape: Two defence witnesses fail to appear

A special court here could not record the statement of two defence witnesses in December 16 gang-rape case as the duo failed to appear and the counsel for an accused submitted that he does not want them to depose.

New Delhi: A special court here on Monday could not record the statement of two defence witnesses in December 16 gang-rape case as the duo failed to appear and the counsel for an accused submitted that he does not want them to depose.

Vivek Sharma, the counsel for accused Pawan Gupta, told Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna that he intends to drop the two witnesses, who were supposed to depose on behalf of the accused today but did not appear in court. Pawan, who was allowed to produce seven witnesses in his defence, made the request to the judge without disclosing any reasons for the non-appearance of the witnesses. The court, while allowing the defence counsel`s request, asked Pawan to produce the remaining one witness. "The aforesaid witnesses are dropped from the list of witnesses. As regarding witness Hari Kishan, it is submitted that his son-in-law has expired and this witness would appear in court probably on Wednesday or Thursday," the court said, while directing Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur`s counsel AP Singh to bring defence witnesses, if any, by tomorrow. The court has recorded testimony of four of the defence witnesses, including Pawan`s father, who had told the judge that his son was innocent and falsely implicated by police. He had also said that his son was not in the bus in which the 23-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by six persons who had also assaulted the victim`s male friend and later dumped them on a road in south Delhi and tried to crush then under the wheels. PTI