Media ban on Delhi gang-rape trial lifted

2013-03-22 11:00

Mangelal, the father of Ram Singh, the man accused of driving the bus on which a 23-year-old student was gang raped who later killed himself, speaks to journalists as his mother looks on. (File, AP)

New Delhi - An Indian court overturned a gagging order on Friday preventing media access to the trial of four men charged with gang-raping a student on a bus in New Delhi last December, a prosecutor said.

"The Delhi High Court has put safeguards in place and allowed one journalist from an accredited national news daily to sit in court proceedings of the December 16 gang-rape case," Dayan Krishnan, the special prosecutor in the trial, said.

"We are fine with that because of the safeguards.

"The court has also put restrictions on what can be reported by the journalist. They cannot report anything about the victim or her family, which is what we were worried about," Krishnan explained.

The 16 December gang-rape of the student, who was returning home from a cinema, shocked India and has led to months of soul-searching, tough new laws on rape and global attention on the country's endemic sex crime problem.

Five men and a juvenile were arrested shortly after the crime and they have been charged with gang-rape, robbery and murder following the death of the 23-year-old victim who succumbed to horrific internal injuries.

One of the suspects, the alleged ring-leader and driver of the bus used in the assault, committed suicide while in prison on 11 March.

- AFP