Update 5:45 p.m. Indian Standard Time
The five men accused of the gang rape of a woman in Delhi on Dec. 16, which resulted in her death, were formally charged Thursday with murder, robbery and rape in a south Delhi court.
Charges had been expected to be heard in room 207 of the court, where crowds of lawyers and journalists had gathered during the day, but they were actually read in a separate room on the same floor, causing chaos. Lawyers and media ran from one room to the other, banging on the door where the charges were read to be let into the second room.
Five men were named in the case, while a sixth suspect who has been arrested may be tried as a juvenile. Additional charges included attempted murder and destruction of evidence.
Surya Malik Grover, a magistrate who handles charges filed after 5 p.m., said an electronic version of the charge sheet would be available on Saturday.
Update, 5 p.m. Indian Standard Time
A large number of lawyers and journalists are still waiting in the Saket District Court complex for a charge sheet to be filed against the six accused in the New Delhi rape case.
The magistrate, who was expected to receive the charge sheet, left the court room two hours ago and has not been seen since. There has been no official communication about whether the accused will be brought to the court, or even if the charge sheet will be filed, as court officials expected Thursday morning.
The situation is being monitored closely by activists and others in the room who have been agitating for better protection of women and stronger punishment for rapists after a woman was raped in Delhi on Dec. 16 by several men. Several female lawyers wore red ribbon armbands as a form of protest.
“We are here to see if the government is serious about the promises they have made about a speedy trial,” said Poonam Kaushik, a lawyer and the general secretary of the Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan, a women’s rights organization. “Where is the charge sheet?” she asked. “We are waiting. The nation is waiting.”
Noon, Indian Standard Time, Thursday, Jan. 3
A scrum of television reporters and a handful of protesters gathered outside the District Court complex in Saket, Delhi, Thursday morning, awaiting a glimpse of the six men accused in a gang rape that ended in the death of a 23-year-old woman last month.
Delhi police are expected to file charges against the accused today, including a charge of murder, which could carry the death penalty if the men are convicted. The police charges, in the form of a document expected to be hundreds of pages long, will be reviewed by Delhi High Court before they are submitted to a magistrate in the Saket court, the neighborhood where the woman was picked up by a private bus and raped.
Court officers said they expected the charge sheet to reach the Saket court by about 2 p.m. In ordinary court procedures in India, the accused would be present when charges are filed in court.
Despite widespread national and international interest in the case, there is no press conference planned on the issue Thursday, a Delhi Police spokesman said. The charge sheet itself is not likely to be made public because of confidential details the sheet contains about the case, he said.
Outside the courthouse, television cameramen scrambled to find a vantage point over a locked courthouse gate for a shot of anyone coming in and out of the building. A lack of official information about what was happening meant that rumors flew fast. The men would not actually be brought to court today, several television reporters said with certainty. Others said they would surely be produced.
So far, no defense attorney has been named for the six men, lawyers and court officers in Saket said.
India Ink: Charges Filed in Delhi Against Accused in Gang Rape Case
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India Ink: Charges Filed in Delhi Against Accused in Gang Rape Case
