Trial begins in Swiss woman gang-rape case

Datia: The trial in the Swiss woman gang-rape case began here on Saturday with two prosecution witnesses recording their statements before a special court.

All the six accused in the case were produced before Additional District Judge (ADJ) Jitendra Kumar Sharma, prosecution sources said. Two prosecution witnesses out of the total six recorded their statement in the case. Jitendra Prajapati and Bhagwat Gurjar identified the belongings of the Swiss couple seized by the police from the accused. They identified their laptop, laptop-charger and mobile phone among other things seized by the police. However, the Swiss couple did not arrive in the town to take part in the court proceedings. The court is likely to issue summons to them to appear before it. The next hearing in the case will be held on April one when another prosecution witness Tapan Suryawanshi will record his statement. Suryawanshi`s help was taken by the police in recording the statement of the victims and registration of an FIR because of language problem. The 39-year-old Swiss woman was gang-raped on March 15, when she was camping along with her male companion in a tent in Datia district. The accused were identified as Baba, Bhuthda, Gaza alias Brajesh, Vishnu Kanjar and Nitin Kanjar. Except Nitin and Vishnu Kanjar, all others have been charged with gang-rape. Nitin and Vishnu were charged with assault and robbery. The incident triggered a public outcry and rocked the state assembly. PTI