3 witnesses depose in Issewal gangrape case

Ludhiana: Three witnesses recorded their statements before the court during the hearing of the Issewal gangrape case in a court here on Thursday. The next date of hearing of the case in the court of Additional Session Judge Rashmi Sharma is on February 13.
On February 9 last year, a group of miscreants had allegedly gangraped a 20-year-old student after holding her and her friend hostage as they had gone to Issewal area to celebrate some occasion. Police had booked 10 unidentified accused in the case and arrested six accused, including Jagroop Singh, a private vehicle driver of Jaspal Bangar, Ajay of Tibba, a native of Gonda in Uttar Pradesh and working as a driver at a petrol pump and four nomads (two from Ludhiana and one from Nawanshahr), including a juvenile from Jammu and Kashmir.
Special public prosecutor in the case B D Gupta said, “Three witnesses deposed before the court on Thursday and those included a female cop, who had taken swab samples of the prosecutrix to laboratory for examination.” He added that other witnesses included a villager from the village of one of the accused, who deposed that he saw him on a motorcycle which was not his own, and a person known to the friend of the prosecutrix.
On October 1 last year, the defence counsel had concluded the cross examination of the Issewal gangrape victim. Prosecution had averred at that time that she fully supported the case of prosecution. On December 3 last year, the defence counsel had concluded the cross-examination of the friend of the Issewal gangrape victim. The test identification parade was done in the presence of Judicial Magistrate Ankit Airi on February 22 at Central Jail and during that the victim had identified all accused. The police had presented a charge-sheet against the accused in the court of Judicial Magistrate Ankit Airi on April 4.
The copy of challan assessed by TOI had suggested that from the investigation only six accused were found to be involved in the case. It added that from the DNA sample reports, call mapping records of talks between the accused, mould from the crime spot and evidence on the record, it was clear that these only six were found involved in the case and they had already been arrested.