Delhi gang-rape convicts would have killed me too, says man who was allegedly robbed by the convicts

A man, who was allegedly robbed by the December 16 gangrape case convicts before they targeted the 23-year-old girl, today told a Delhi court that he too could have been killed if he was not thrown out of the moving bus by them. "If I was not thrown, I would have been killed by the accused," Ram Adhar, a carpenter by profession, told this to Additional Sessions Judge Daya Prakash during his deposition as a prosecution witness in the case.

Ram Adhar had earlier identified the four adult accused -- Mukesh (26), Vinay Sharma (20), Pawan Gupta (19) and Akshay Singh Thakur (28) -- who were present in the courtroom and had said they had beaten and robbed him. The accused allegedly lured Ram Adhar into the bus and robbed him before raping and assaulting the girl in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16 last year. The girl died in a Singapore hospital on December 2

The four persons were convicted by a special fast track court on September 10 in the gangrape case. It is scheduled to pronounce tomorrow the quantum of sentence, which may extend to death penalty.

Ram Adhar also told the court that he had identified the bus in which the incident had occurred by its "physical appearance" and registration number during the probe into the case. "It is incorrect to suggest that I was never robbed by the accused persons present in the court today. It is incorrect to suggest that I am deposing falsely," he said.

During his cross examination by advocate Asim Ali, who appeared on behalf of the four adult accused, Ram Adhar said he had boarded the bus on the fateful night. "It is incorrect to suggest that I was not standing at the bus stop. It is incorrect to suggest that I did not board the bus in question. I identified the bus by physical appearance and registration number of the bus. At the time of identifying the bus, I went only up to the gate of the bus and from there I looked inside the bus and identified the same. When I was thrown, there were many persons but nobody helped me," he told the court.

During the proceedings today, the court also completed the recording of statements of six other prosecution witnesses.

In the gangrape case, the four men were also held guilty for the offences punishable under various sections of the IPC including that of attempt to murder, dacoity, unnatural offences, destruction of evidence, conspiracy, kidnapping or abducting in order to murder.

Key accused Ram Singh was found dead in his cell after he had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail on March 11 and proceedings against him were abated following his death.

Besides them, the juvenile, who was facing proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board, was recently convicted by JJB in the robbery case and the gangrape and murder case.

He was sentenced to three years in reformation home in the gangrape case and was awarded the sentence already undergone in custody during the inquiry in the robbery case.

According to the police, on December 16, 2012, Ram Adhar was lured into the bus and robbed by the six accused before they had gangraped the girl in a moving bus in south Delhi.

The court had on July 15 framed charges against the accused for offences punishable under sections 342 (wrongfully confining any person), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing or attempting to commit robbery), 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property knowing that it was obtained by dacoity) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.