Dec 16 gangrape case delayed other trials in Saket court,says prosecutor

It had taken 221 days,130 hearings and six lawyers for Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Yogesh Khanna to deliver the death sentence to the four convicted in the December 16 gangrape case on Friday. The day-to-day trial in the high-profile case took its toll on the disposal rate of the court.

From January till September,the FTC in Saket had disposed of 23 cases which is the lowest in comparison to other FTCs during the same period. According to available data,the FTC in Karkardooma presided over by ASJ T R Naval has disposed of 73 cases,while the one in Rohini presided by ASJ M C Gupta has disposed of 56 cases.

The FTC in Dwarka presided over by ASJ Virender Bhatt has disposed of around 83 cases and the one in Tis Hazari presided over by ASJ Nivedita Anil Sharma had disposed of around 48 cases. The FTC for central and north districts presided over by ASJ Kaveri Baweja has disposed of around 43 cases.

In the wake of protests surrounding the gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a moving bus,the six FTCs were established on January 2 for speedy disposal of sexual assault cases against women.

According to A T Ansari,the public prosecutor in the FTC,every attempt was made to ensure that the gangrape trial did not impinge on other trials. “But since the trial went on almost every afternoon,the other matters got delayed,” Ansari said.

According to sources,around 4 to 10 rape cases were “matured” for trial in Saket’s FTC but had to be put on hold owing to the gangrape trial. Since February 5,the cause list of the court had been dominated by the gangrape trial.

Special Public Prosecutor in the case Dayan Krishnan denies claims that the nine-month-long trial had been delayed. “Only half a day was allotted for arguments…the trial could not have been any faster or else it would have compromised the rights of the accused,” he said.

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