Accused seeks discharge from US woman gang-rape case

New Delhi March 17 (IANS) One of the accused in the alleged gang-rape of a US tourist pleaded in a Delhi court on Friday for discharge due to alleged lack of evidence against him.

After hearing arguments the court listed the matter for hearing on March 21.

Accused Aniruddha Singh moved the discharge application before Additional Sessions Judge D.K. Sharma saying it is unbelievable that the woman was reluctant to lodge a complaint in the crime.

Police opposed the discharge application saying closed-circuit television footage of a hotel where the crime allegedly occured and a mobile phone were sent for forensic tests to a laboratory in Hyderabad and the report is awaited.

The woman filed a police complaint with the help of a non-governmental organisation in early December saying the accused drugged her and sexually assaulted her for two days and also recorded it. The accused however denied the charge.

Delhi Police have filed a charge sheet against Aniruddha Singh Omprakash Maqsood and Vivek. They were arrested in December last year.

Aniruddha Singh is a Nepal-based tourist guide Omprakash a driver Maqsood a helper and Vivek a bell boy at the hotel.

The 30-year-old woman alleged she was gang-raped at the luxury hotel in the first week of April last year.

An FIR was registered on her complaint after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj intervened.

--IANS
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