Delhi Police apologises for not naming patrol team

A day after the Delhi high court slammed the police for not naming policemen patrolling the area in which the 23-year-old woman was gang raped on December 16, 2012, the force on Thursday apologised to the court and submitted a fresh status report which included the names of the policemen patrolling the area that night.

“I tender my unconditional apology for not giving the names of policemen who were on duty in the PCR vans concerned, though their names have figured in the charge sheet as they are witnesses in the case,” Dayan Krishnan, counsel for the Delhi police, told a bench comprising chief justice D Murugesan and justice VK Jain.

“So, what was the difficulty in naming them in the status report? You should have told this to us earlier,” the bench replied. The court on Wednesday had pulled up the Delhi police, saying why senior officers, including the police commissioner, were not held accountable for the incident.

Meanwhile, advocate Meenakshi Lekhi moved a petition on behalf of some journalists in connection with an order of the lower court that there should be in-camera trial of the proceedings. “The entire nation wants to know about the proceedings and the media, which undertakes to act responsibly, should not be gagged,” she said.  The court refused to hear the case on Thursday and directed her to file the petition before a single judge. The petition is likely to be heard on Friday.