The trial that is changing India

NEW DELHI // For much of this year, four men accused in a high-profile rape and murder trial have appeared in a tiny courtroom in New Delhi that barely seats 30 people.
They sit in the last row of chairs, separated from each other by police officers.
In this fast-track court, it is a trial that has already changed India.
The horrifying details of what happened on the night of December 16 last year were reported around the world.
A 23-year-old woman was tortured and gang raped on a moving bus in Delhi. Her naked body and that of her male companion were then dumped on the side of a road. She later died of her injuries.
The case has already resulted in the laws of the land being rewritten, prompting the government to introduce tougher penalties for rapists and those who commit any violent crimes against women.
Even the fast-track court is part of that legacy, created after a public outroar over the length of time - often several years - it usually takes to prosecute such cases.
Now the defendants face an army of witnesses who testify against them almost every day, as protesters gather outside the courthouse demanding they be denied a trial and be publicly hanged.
Six people were charged with robbery, rape and murder. One is a juvenile who is being tried in a separate court. There were five defendants when the trial began in January but the key accused, Ram Singh, was found dead in his cell in March. The authorities ruled his death was a suicide.
Vinay Sharma, another of the accused, has appeared in court for the past month with his right arm in a cast after he was allegedly beaten by fellow inmates.
While he often speaks to his lawyers, Mukesh, Ram Singh's brother, and the other two men, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta, have been silent spectators at the trial.
The judge, Yogesh Khanna, lifted a publication ban on March 22, ending the threat of legal action against media reporting on events in the courtroom. There are 80 witnesses in the case, including doctors, police officers and members of the public.
Last month, a female police officer told the court that she had spoken to the victim as she was being wheeled from a hospital ward to the operating room.
"I tried to talk to her," she said. "She was not able to speak clearly but she could answer my questions. She told me what had happened."
The officer said she met the victim's parents and convinced the doctors that the mother should be allowed to see her daughter.
Another police officer was on the stand for days last month as the defence tried to prove allegations by Mr Thakur and Mukesh Singh that they had been beaten in custody by police.
There are also those who want to see defendants cleared.
Kalyani Devi and Mangelal Singh, the parents of Ram and Mukesh Singh, wait each day outside the courtroom to see their sons after the day's proceedings.
On one occasion, after Mrs Devi made her way to see Mukesh at the back of the courtroom, her son gently touched his mother's feet in a sign of reverence.
The family huddled for a quick minute. As she left her son's side, Mrs Devi planted a kiss on his cheek.
Mukesh turned away, smiling but embarrassed at his mother's gesture of love. She ran her fingers through his hair. He quickly touched his parents' feet again before they said their goodbyes.
sbhattacharya@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

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Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

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Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”