ML Sharma, defence counsel for Mukesh and Akshay Thakur, confronted the prosecution witness, an assistant manager of Air India, Cargo Terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, on whether he could say if the 'coffin contained the dead body of a male or a female'?

New Delhi: The cross-examination of an Air India officer, who handled the hand-over of the Delhi gangrape victim's coffin on its arrival at the IGI airport from Singapore, saw the defence pursue an unexpected line of questioning on Tuesday.

ML Sharma, defence counsel for Mukesh and Akshay Thakur, confronted the prosecution witness, an assistant manager of Air India, Cargo Terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, on whether he could say if the "coffin contained the dead body of a male or a female"?

The witness had earlier during Tuesday's cross-examination told the court that "It is wrong to suggest that instead of human remains some other things were loaded in the said box. It is not our duty to open the coffin box and check the remains."

The court hence disallowed the question by the defence counsel on grounds that the witness had already made clear that he had not opened the coffin.

It maybe recalled the gangrape victim had been shifted from the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi in an air ambulance to Mount Elizabeth hospital in Singapore, where she succumbed to injuries on 29 December.

Responding to questions by the defence counsel on the procedure followed when coffins are flown in, the witness said, "Whenever any coffin is transported to our country, permission is given by Customs Department. I do not know if any permission from government of India is requited to hand over the coffin. What is expected of me, being an Air India employee, is that whenever a coffin is received, we have to hand it over along with the documents to either the person who is accompanying the coffin or to the consignee."

Asked by the defence counsel as to when and by whom he was informed of the arrival of the coffin, the witness said, "I received the information about the arrival of the coffin at around 11.15 pm, after I joined duty at 11.00 pm on that day... The flight arrived at 3.30 am on 30 December, 2012."

The witness in response to the defence counsel's question as to whether any politicians or journalists or persons un-related to the deceased where present when the flight arrived, told the court, "I do not know if any person unrelated to the deceased were present in the Cargo department at the time of delivery of coffin."

The witness told the court that he had checked all important documents (death certificate, embalming certificate, passport and a letter from the Indian High Commisson) before handing over the coffin.

"I had seen the name in the passport but I had not thoroughly checked the contents of the passport. We do not check passports in the case of a dead body. It is the duty of immigration to check passport details," the witness told the court.

The coffin, the witness said, was unloaded in his presence and then loaded in an ambulance by loaders. "The coffin box was in sealed condition. I had not opened the coffin box, in fact we cannot. No one has opened the coffin box in my presence. As per the documents the coffin carried human remains... I had not seen any photographs of the dead body in the documents received by us."

Asked by defence counsel Sharma if the coffin was put through an x-ray machine, the witness said, "There was no x-ray machine at the bay. It is correct that the coffin was taken in the ambulance after it was loaded there."

On being cross examined on presence of the victim's father during the hand-over at the airport, the witness said, "I and my senior Rita Marwaha had confirmed from the air hostess that the consignee was the father of the victim. The consignee had come in the same aircraft along with the coffin and after his identity was revealed by the air hostess, he signed the documents in my presence and thereafter the coffin was delivered. It was a special flight. There were other persons on the flight."

The court disallowed a question by defence to the witness as to whether he had verified the signature of the victim's father with some other signatures on the grounds that it was not relevant and that the victim's father was a witness himself.

The cross examination of the witness will continue on Wednesday.

In other developments, AP Singh, defence counsel for Vinay Sharma, said his client was being supplied milk and fruit in jail since Monday evening. Singh had filed an application on behalf of his client before the fast-track court on Monday that his client be supplied a proper diet with milk and fruit so that he can prepare for entrance tests and BA exams. (Read full report here)

The four accused Mukesh, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta were present in court. They are on trial for the gangrape and murder of a 23-year old student and attack on her friend on the night of 16 December.

The fifth accused, a juvenile, is being tried by the Juvenile Justice Board. The main accused Ram Singh was found hanging in his prison cell in Tihar Jail on 11 March. Proceedings against him have since been abated.