Sarah Groves family say they are sure their continued protests over the state of the trial of the man accused of killing her are entirely justified after further delays to the proceedings in Srinagar.
The man accused of killing Miss Groves, and Prosecution Witness 26, both appeared in court in yesterday, but although the continued cross examination of Senior Inspector Kuldeep Koul was scheduled, it could not be completed as the court proceedings were delayed until 15:45 due to previous cases over-running.
SI Koul was first summoned to appear on 26 November 2017 and yesterday’s hearing was the tenth occasion on which his evidence should have been heard. Of those 10 hearings, five were unable to proceed at all and the others were afforded insufficient time to reach a conclusion.
Overall in the trial, there are still 15 listed witnesses yet to give their evidence and the whereabouts of the taxi driver, whose evidence is considered important, remains unknown.
Miss Groves' father has said "Clearly, this is a disgrace" adding that with the murder trial allocated just 45 minutes of court time, progress was always going to be disrupted yet again: "All we ask is that someone has the courage to put their head above the parapet and shame the relevant authorities into action."
Pictured: Richard de Wit at court yesterday
Following yesterday's hearing, Vic Groves told the media that his family are yet again justified in their criticisms of the court case, which has now been running for almost five years, with the first scheduled court day coming soon after Miss Groves died in April 2013: "For almost five years we have been trying to draw to the attention of the legal, political and diplomatic authorities in the UK, in India (especially within Kashmir) and in the Netherlands (Richard de Wit is a Dutch national) to the complete lack of professionalism and respect that this trial has been afforded. The way it has been handled has been unacceptable from Day One but, unfortunately, the trend is getting worse."
Mr Groves said that yesterday's hearing "confirms beyond all doubt that our protestations are entirely justified" adding that delaying the court case while more minor matters are dealt with has become routine now: "Court opened at 10:30 when, as usual, several minor civil offences were dealt with. One of them overran and descended into protracted legal argument. Our case is supposed to be heard immediately after lunch, but the legal arguments continued."
He explained that as the trial was unable to start until 15:45, when only a limited amount of cross-examination was undertaken, the court soon ran out of time for the day. Mr Groves was dismayed to learn that at 16:30 the judge announced that the court would rise with the witness summoned to appear at the next scheduled hearing on Wednesday 25 April.
Richard de Wit denies murder.
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