A city court on Wednesday issued production warrant for the owner of the bus in which a 23-year-old girl was gangraped on December 16 last year to depose as a prosecution witness in the case on Thursday.
Additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna issued production warrant for Dinesh Yadav, the owner of the bus, who is at present lodged in Tihar jail following his arrest for cheating and procuring the bus licenses and plying it on city roads illegally. The court has summoned him to find out to whom he had handed over the custody of the vehicle on the fateful night. Besides the bus owner, Ramadhar, the carpenter who was lured into the bus and robbed by the accused has also been summoned as prosecution witness.
The court direction came on the application filed by the police seeking permission to call Dinesh as a prosecution witness in the case.
“Considering the facts and circumstances and as offence was committed inside the bus it is important to find out as to who he had handed over the custody of the bus on the night of December 16, 2012. His evidence becomes relevant. Hence it is just and proper to call prosecution witness (PW) Dinesh Yadav as a witness,” the court said.
The court also summoned Ramadhar as a prosecution witness on the application moved by police, which said his testimony intends to prove that the accused had conspired to commit offences with commuters of the bus on December 16 night.
The prosecution’s move was opposed by the counsel for accused Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta, who are facing trial for gangrape and murder. Vinay and Akshay’s counsel A.P. Singh argued that since the police has dropped Dinesh’s name as a witness from their list, he could not be summoned. The court, however, declined Singh’s submission and said since the prosecution evidence is going on, there is no harm in calling any such witness.