In a petition to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, the accused have said the crime branch probe should be quashed.
Sub-Inspector Anand Dutta and Special Police Officer (SPO) Deepak Khajuria moved the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Monday against their arrest in connection with the gangrape and murder of a minor in Kathua district. The two sought direction from the court to quash the probe by the state crime branch and pleaded that a fresh CBI investigation be ordered, reported news agency PTI.
An eight-year-old Bakarwal girl was allegedly sedated, confined, gangraped and murdered and her body was recovered a week after she went missing in January from a forest in the district. The sub-inspector and the SPO were among the eight people, including a juvenile, arrested by the SIT and charged with destruction of evidence.
The petitioners have challenged the grounds for their arrest, saying that the probe was shifted, on three occasions from the local police to the crime branch, before it was handed over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Claiming the crime branch probe was “incorrect”, the petitioners said there were “huge differences” in the post mortem and forensic reports. In their petition, they alleged the SIT tampered and planted evidence. They have also objected to the crime branch findings that the girl was kept in a Devasthan, reported PTI.
Further, the petitioners challenged the fact that a policeman, who was involved in a rape and murder case and evaded arrest for three years despite being a officer, is a member of the SIT. The officer was subsequently discharged in the case for lack of evidence.
Since the commencement of the trial in the case, which began last Monday, the accused have sought a CBI probe as well as a narco test to prove their innocence.
(With inputs from PTI)