Life terms for 3 in Kathua gang rape and murder case

PATHANKOT: His heart in pieces after the horrific gang rape and murder of his little daughter last year, the man, a nomadic Bakarwal from the higher reaches of Kashmir, had promised he would never return to Kathua. On Monday, moments after a local court in Pathankot sentenced three of the six men involved in the crime to life in prison, the father of the dead girl told TOI from somewhere near Kargil that when he goes to Kathua again, he will sit by his daughter's grave for a long time, in benediction and gratitude.
District and sessions judge Tejwinder Singh ordered five years of imprisonment for the remaining three men convicted in the case that shook the country after sordid details of the girl's torture, rape and killing started tumbling out after chilling events of January 10, 2018.
The seventh accused, Vishal Jangotra, son of main conspirator Sanji Ram, a retired revenue officer, was acquitted. The eighth accused, who claims to be a juvenile, is yet to face trial as his plea on determination of his age is yet to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir high court.
"In the present case, facts are many but the truth is one - that under a criminal conspiracy, an innocent eight-year-old girl has been kidnapped, drugged, raped and ultimately murdered. Perpetrators of the crime have acted in such a manner as if there is a 'law of the jungle' prevalent in society," said the judge in his order.
Comparing the victim to a “young chick who wanted to fly high”, judge Singh quoted a Mirza Ghalib couplet: “Pinha tha daam-e-sakht qareeb aashiyaan ke, Udne hi na paaye the ki giraftaar hum hue” (Near the bird’s nest, the young chick was caught in a hard net placed by the hunter before it could take flight).

Key accused Sanji Ram, who doubled up as the priest of a local temple where the girl was kept during her torture, his friend Parvesh Kumar and special police officer Deepak Khajuria were held guilty under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) that is in use in J&K. The three men were awarded multiple sentences for various related aspects of the crime, but these would run concurrently with the life sentence. They were also fined Rs 1 lakh each. This means they will be in jail till the end of their lives.
Three police personnel — sub-inspector Anand Dutta, special police officer Surender Verma and head constable Tilak Raj — were also held guilty under Section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the RPC. During argument, defence lawyers pleaded for milder punishment for the accused on the grounds that “the entire case was based on circumstantial evidence and wrong facts created by the J&K police”. The prosecution, however, sought death sentence, terming it a “rarest of rare case”. When the quantum of sentence was finally pronounced around 4.50 pm, Jangotra started crying in the courtroom. But Sanji Ram raised slogans, shouting that he is innocent and was framed by police.
The Hindu Ekta Manch that had last year taken out processions in Jammu demanding the release of the accused, said the six men were innocent.
Back in Kashmir, the father of the girl, said, “Justice has been done though we don’t know how Sanji Ram’s son went free. We miss the sweet soul that we lost. All we can now do is hope for her peace.”