The Hindu : New Delhi News : Remand extended

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Remand extended

Staff Reporter

Test identification parade of rape accused postponed

NEW DELHI: The judicial remand of Ajit Kumar Katiyar, prime accused in the Delhi University student rape case, was extended till Tuesday by the Tihar Jail Magistrate. The Magistrate also postponed the test identification parade to Tuesday.

While a Delhi court on Saturday had sent the accused to two days in judicial custody and called for holding of the test identification parade on Monday, it could not take place and the accused would have to wait for another day before he is brought before the girl who was criminally assaulted by four persons in two different vehicles on May 8.

Ajit Kumar, who was arrested by the South-West Delhi police from Kachchi Colony in Noida on May 13 for alleged involvement in the gruesome crime, will now be produced before the victim in the TIP Room of Jail No. 3, where he is lodged, on Tuesday. As per the procedure he would be at liberty to choose 10 other persons of his built and physique to stand beside him during the identification parade.

All 11 will be assigned a particular number and will be lined up before the Tihar Jail Magistrate. Then the victim would be asked to walk before them and look them in the face. On identifying the accused, she would be at liberty to either identify him on the spot or tell the magistrate in confidence about the identification number of the person she suspects to be the accused.

During the entire proceedings no police officer would be allowed in the TIP Room.

Following the test identification parade, the accused, who had consented to the exercise before the Metropolitan Magistrate on duty, Digvijay Singh, at the Patiala House Courts on May 14, would again be presented before the court by the police who now seek his remand to proceed further with the case.

Meanwhile, the Delhi police are yet to arrest the three other accused and effect the recovery of the two cars -- a Maruti Zen and a Santro -- involved in the crime. They also have to recover some vital circumstantial evidence like the clothes worn by the victim and the accused on the day of the crime.

Though with the arrest of Ajit, a call centre driver at Noida, the Delhi police have been able to identify the three other accused, they have not been arrest them thus far. The accused had abducted the girl from Dhaula Kuan and threatened her with a country-made pistol and an iron rod. They had then driven around the city for nearly two-and-a-half-hours during which they criminally assaulted her repeatedly.

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