Verdict in Kathua rape, murder case likely on Monday

A special court in Pathankot is slated to deliver the verdict on Monday in the brutal rape and murder case of 8-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. The closed-door hearing in the case got completed on June 3, during which district and sessions judge Tejvinder Singh had announced that the verdict would be delivered on June 10.

Security has been stepped up by the authorities near the court premises in the wake of the verdict.

As per the chargesheet filed in the case, the girl was abducted on January 10, 2018 and held captive at a temple in a village in Kathua district. She was kept unconscious for almost four days, during which she was raped. Following the heinous act, the child was brutally murdered.

The hearing in the case was conducted on a day-to-day basis in the district and sessions court in Pathankot in Punjab. The case was transferred to Pathankot on the orders of the Supreme Court.

The decision was taken by the apex court after lawyers at the Kathua court prevented officials of the crime branch from filing the chargesheet in the rape and murder case.

Later in October 2018, an accused in the case, Parvesh Kumar, filed a plea in the top court, seeking an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The plea was, however, turned down by the court. While turning down the plea, the apex court said that there is no ground for the accused to seek a transfer of the probe. The top court also told the accused that he should point out all infirmities during the trial.

The crime branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven people and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile revealing chilling details about how the minor girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed. 

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud also dismissed a separate plea filed by two other accused in the case seeking transfer of the investigation in the matter to an independent agency.