The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Nayagaon rape case today submitted its status report. The division bench of Justices Amar Dutt and Kiran Anand Lall of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the SIT to file supplementary challans, if necessary, against the rest of the accused within four weeks. This was in response to the directions sought by the SIT in its report submitted to the bench in the Nayagaon rape case.Earlier, while submitting the report, Advocate General R.S. Cheema said the state was in the process of ‘‘winding up the investigations’’. The SIT had filed challans against the rest of the accused on October 15.The report said the team had filed the challans against the accused within three months, as stipulated by the HC. It was also submitted in the chargesheet that the investigations pertaining to Express journalist Gautam Dheer and accused Gurjit Singh — whose identity was yet to be established — were still being carried out and that fresh evidence would be submitted in the court under the provisions of Section 173(8) CrPC.The report also said adequate security had been provided to the complainant’s father and her family through the PAP personnel, SSP Patiala and DSP Dera Bassi. The SIT chief had issued directions to DSP, Mohali, Harpreet Singh to make a detailed inquiry about filing of an affidavit by the minor rape victim. The same would be submitted to the HC as and when it is received from the officer concerned, the report said.Regarding the DNA test of the alleged rapists, the SIT chief stated in the report that ‘‘no useful purpose is likely to be served by conducting DNA test at this stage as the primary issue involved is the rape of a minor girl by several persons over a period of time and not the paternity of the child’’. The SIT also sought HC’s advice on this.The SIT also sought directions from the HC to the trial court seeking the transfer of the case to fast track court, making the trial time-bound and proceedings to be held on day-to-day basis.
