Kathua rape case latest updates: The juvenile accused arrested in the Kathua rape and murder case has moved a bail application before the judicial magistrate. The matter will be heard later on Monday.

The Supreme Court will hear the victim's father's plea to move the Kathua rape case to Chandigarh from Jammu. Senior Counsel Indira Jaising will appear on behalf of the victim's family, reported Live Law.

Eight-year-old victim's father approached the Supreme Court seeking safety, security and transfer of the case outside Jammu and Kashmir. The family will ask the apex court to let the case be heard in Chandigarh instead. The Supreme Court wil hear the matter at 2 pm, reports said. The court, meanwhile, postponed the hearing and set 28 April as the next date.

Appearing for the accused the lawyer said that the court directed that copies of the chargesheet should be provided to all accused. The lawyer alleged that after the case was called and all accused appeared, he filed his Wakalatnama. "I asked for a copy of chargesheet, there is 490-page copy and I did not receive any copy. Is this a hallmark of a fair trial," the lawyer was quoted as saying by reports. Meanwhile, accused Sanji Ram said that a narco test would reveal the truth. Reports said that a narco test might be likely in the Kathua rape and murder case.

Lawyers in New Delhi will be holding a march in protest at 3 pm on Monday against the "conduct" of lawyers of the Bar Association Jammu, who earlier had come out in support of those accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.

For the survivors of the horrific 1991 Kunan-Poshpora mass rapes, the murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua has reopened old wounds, reported The survivors came from their hamlet to show solidarity for the minor victim in Kathua. "If the state would have booked the perpetrators (armed forces) who unleashed terror in the village and raped our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives; a minor girl would not have been raped. Kunan-Poshpara could have acted as a deterrent, so that no girl in Jammu and Kashmir would ever be raped,” a victim said.

The trial in the Kathua rape case is set to begin on Monday amid nationwide protests against the rape incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. Scores of people took to streets on Sunday protesting over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district and the rape of a 17-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar.

According to media reports, the eight-year-old girl's father will approach the Supreme Court today to seek to move the trial of the rape and murder of his daughter to Chandigarh from Kathua.

The family members of Sanji Ram, the alleged conspirator of the Kathua rape and murder case, have said that he should be hanged publicly but only if a CBI probe into the case finds him guilty. The family members also criticised the national media for portraying their agitation for a CBI probe into the case as "pro-rapists" and "pro-culprits", and said the scribes were "delivering judgments without investigation".

Speaking to ANI on Sunday, the Kathua victim's family's counsel Deepika Rajawat said that she was threatened on Saturday and does not know till when she will be alive. "I don't know till when I will be alive. I can be raped, my modesty can be outraged, I can be killed, I can be damaged. I was threatened yesterday that 'we will not forgive you'. I am going to tell SC tomorrow that I am in danger," ANI quoted Rajawat as saying.

File image of protests against the Kathua and Unnao rape cases. Reuters

File image of protests against the Kathua and Unnao rape cases. Reuters

The Kathua chief judicial magistrate will be committing one of the charge sheets, in which seven people have been named, to the sessions court for trial whereas for the accused juvenile, trial will be held under the CJM as it is the designated court under the Juvenile Justice Act, according to officials.

The trial in the gruesome Kathua rape and murder case begins on Monday against eight accused who allegedly held an eight-year-old girl in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district for a week in January this year during which she was kept sedated and sexually assaulted before being bludgeoned to death.

The accused include a juvenile against whom a separate charge sheet was filed.

The chief judicial magistrate of Kathua will be committing one of the charge sheets, in which seven people have been named, to the sessions court for trial as mandated under the law. The chief judicial magistrate will, however, hold the trial for the juvenile as it is the designated court under the juvenile act, according to officials.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has appointed two special public prosecutors, both Sikhs, for the trial in the sensitive case, a move being seen as made to ensure "neutrality" in view of Hindu-Muslim polarisation over the case.

The trial is expected to go smoothly after the Jammu Bar association as well as the Kathua Bar received a rap on the kuckles by the Supreme Court on 13 April as the apex court took a strong note of some lawyers obstructing the judicial process in the case.

The Supreme Court initiated a case on its own record saying such impediment "affects the dispensation of justice and would amount to obstruction of access to justice".

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud was also critical of the Jammu High Court Bar Association, which had passed a resolution not to attend the courts saying "it is the duty of the bar association as a collective body and they cannot obstruct the process of law".

According to the charge sheets filed by the crime branch, the abduction, rape and killing of the Bakerwal girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area.

It lists the caretaker of 'Devisthan', a small temple, in a village in Kathua, about 90 kilometres from Jammu, as the main conspirator behind the crime.

Sanji Ram was allegedly joined by special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, Ram's nephew, a juvenile, and his son Vishal Jangotra alias "Shamma".

The charge sheet also names investigating officers head constable Tilak Raj and Sub-Inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.

All eight are under arrest.

The crime branch will also be handing over the notices issued to the Jammu Bar Council as well as Kathua Bar Council for appearing before the Supreme Court on 19 April.

The Bar Association of Kathua has already retracted from its earlier statement of providing legal assistance free of cost to the accused and said “after going through the charge sheet presented by the crime branch (against the accused in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on 9 April) it is revealed that the allegations against the accused persons are very grave and as such this case is to be dealt with in a professional way.

"As such, we have withdrawn our offer to contest the case free of cost. Accused are free to engage any individual advocate and exercise their respective rights of defence in the court. It is for any individual advocate to accept the brief and the bar association will not come in the way of defence nor the bar association will hamper the prosecution," President of BAK Kirty Bhushan Mahajan had said in a seven page statement on Saturday.

Members of the same association had blocked the way of crime branch personnel from submitting the charge sheet before the chief judicial magistrate for six hours forcing the police to present it at the house of the magistrate.

Police have already registered a case against lawyers for obstructing public servants from performing their duty.

The Jammu Bar association, which was left red-faced after the Supreme Court's observation, attempted to put a brave face saying they had full faith in the apex court and said their main demand was for shifting of illegally settled Rohingyas.

It denounced the attempts made by certain quarters for making wrongful attempts to project the association as "pro-rapist" or "anti-national".

The association today fielded a senior woman advocate Surinder Kour who said "we are now satisfied that the case has reached the Supreme Court and we are satisfied that justice will be delivered to the minor girl."

JHCBA is on strike since 4 April and sponsored a general strike on 11 April in Jammu to press for its demands including for according district status to Nowshera sub division in Rajouri district.

"We included the demand for CBI probe into the Kathua rape and murder at the request of civil society," Kour said and accused the state government of forcing them into agitation by "giving no response to our concerns despite repeated memorandums and statements."

With inputs from PTI


Updated Date: Apr 16, 2018 12:30 PM