A special court on Tuesday deferred till February 21 the Bilkis Bano gang rape case after defence lawyers sought time to prepare for an in-camera trial.
Defence lawyer R K Shah sought time till February 21 to study the case of accused Sangeeta Prasad.
The court had earlier separated the trial of Prasad from the main trial, as she was under medical treatment. A recent medical check-up, however, revealed that she was now fit to stand trial.
Prasad is charged with helping the co-accused to fabricate medical records of the prime witness, Bilkis Bano.
Bano did not appear before the court despite being summoned. Judge U D Salvi directed the prosecution to serve a fresh summons on her.
The prosecution sought an in-camera trial on the grounds that this was a gang rape case and evidence of the prime witness was important.
On January 13, the court framed charges against 19 of the 20 accused for their alleged complicity in attacking 17 members of the minority community on March three in Devgarh Baria village of Dahod district in Gujarat, a few days after the Godhra incident on February 28, 2002. All of them have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Charges are yet to be framed against Prasad.
