R. Banumathi JUDGMENT
Dipak Misra, J.
1. The cold evening of Delhi on 16th December, 2012 could not have even remotely planted the feeling in the twenty-three year old lady, a para-medical student, who had gone with her friend to watch a film at PVR Select City Walk Mall, Saket, that in the next few hours, the shattering cold night that was gradually stepping in would bring with it the devastating hour of darkness when she, alongwith her friend, would get into a bus at Munirka bus stand to be dropped at a particular place; and possibly could not have imagined that she would be a prey to the savage lust of a gang of six, face brutal assault and become a playful thing that could be tossed around at their wild whim and her private parts would be ruptured to give vent to their pervert sexual appetite, unthinkable and sadistic pleasure. What the victims had not conceived of, it all happened, as the chronology of events would unroll. The attitude, perception, the beastial proclivity, inconceivable self-obsession and individual centralism of the six made the young lady to suffer immense trauma and, in the ultimate eventuate, the life-spark that moves the bodily frame got extinguished in spite of availing of all the possible treatment that the medical world could provide. The death took place at a hospital in Singapore where she had been taken to with the hope that her life could be saved.
2. The friend of the girl survived in spite of being thrown outside the bus along with the girl and the attempt of the accused-Appellants to run over them became futile as they, by their slight movement, could escape from being crushed under the bus, and the Appellants left them thinking that they were no more alive. Lying naked, as the clothes were removed from their bodies, they shouted for help and as good fortune would have it, the night patrolling vehicle, a motor cycle, arrived and the said man, Raj Kumar, P.W. 72, gave the shirt to the boy and contacted the control room from which a Bolero patrol van came and they brought a bed sheet and tore it into two parts and gave a piece to each of the victims so that they could cover themselves and feel civil. The PCR van took the victims to the Safdarjung Hospital where treatment commenced.
3. The present case is one where there can be no denial that the narrative is long, the investigation has been cautious and to bring home the charge, modern and progressive scientific methods have been adopted. Mr. Siddharth Luthra, learned Senior Counsel for the Respondent-State, has made indefatigable endeavour to project that the investigation is flawless and exemplary; and Mr. M.L. Sharma and Mr. A.P. Singh, learned Counsel for the Appellants, have severely criticized it as faulty on many a score and that it is completely biased; and Mr. Sanjay R. Hegde, learned Senior Counsel, the friend of the Court, in his own way, has highlighted that the investigation is not only flawed but also unreliable which deserves chastisement and warrants rejection. Many facets of the investigation that pertain to recording of dying declaration, recording of statements of witnesses Under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal P........