Court seeks report on missing rape case files

The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Saket district judge and a police officer to file status report giving an explanation on the missing files of a 20-year-old rape case whose trial has been held up. The division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain granted two weeks to additional deputy commissioner of police and the district judge to file the report. The case would next be heard on 13 February. The court earlier asked the district judge to file the report but his representative sought more time. The court’s direction came on a petition alleging that the day after the accused got bail 19 years ago, the case had not moved a step forward.

In June 1993, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped in Connaught Place by Karan Pal. Police arrested the accused and filed the chargesheet on 27 September 1993. During the proceedings the case file went missing and could not be traced since then.