Kathua rape-murder case: Six out of seven accused held guilty

PATHANKOT: Almost after one year of the criminal trial in the infamous Kathua rape and murder case, a local court in Pathankot on Monday convicted six accused who were facing charges in this case.
While three accused including Sanjhi Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh have been held guilty under section 302 (murder), 376D (gang rape) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), remaining three accused Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Surender Verma have been held guilty under section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the RPC.
Seventh accused Vishal Jangotra has been acquitted from all charges. Counsel for the accused SK Sawney said that they would file an appeal against the conviction of six persons would be filed before the Punjab and Haryana high court.
In this case, the allegations as per the police chargesheet were that the 8-year-old victim was kidnapped, sedated before she was raped, multiple times by several persons. The chargesheet also claimed that the victim was kept in captivity for rape before she was bludgeoned to death. The allegations included that the victim was used as a pawn to dislodge the Bakherwal Muslim (Gujjar- Bakherwal) nomads from Kathua area of Jammu region.

Confirming the acquittal of the verdict, Vinod Mahajan, one of the counsels for accused, informed that six accused has been held guilty and the quantum of sentence to the accused is expected in afternoon.
Mahajan confirmed that seventh accused Vishal Jangotra has been acquitted after it was proved that he was present in another state at the time of the incident.
The trial of the case was shifted to Pathankot in May 2018 after Supreme Court directions. The trial of the case was being conducted "in-camera" on a day-to-day basis by the district and sessions judge for the past around one year.

Both the prosecution and accused side had completed their final arguments in the case last week. The examination of defence and prosecution witnesses culminated on May 24. The defence had examined around 20 witnesses and the prosecution had examined its 114 witnesses.
On May 7, the Supreme Court had shifted the trial to Pathankot, which is around 26 km from Kathua that had witnessed mass protests and triggered a political crisis in the state over the investigation report of Jammu and Kashmir police.

As per the chargesheet of Jammu and Kashmir police, the eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community was kidnapped on January 10, 2018, and allegedly raped in captivity in a village temple in Kathua district. She was later killed by the accused. Trial of the case was going on going on at Pathankot since May 31, 2018, on day to day basis. There were total seven accused who are facing trial before the Pathankot court.
Later in July 2018, the SC had ordered the transfer of the accused in the rape case from Kathua Jail to Gurdaspur Jail citing the exceptional circumstances of the case. At present, all the accused are confined in Gurdaspur jail and were being brought to Pathankot court complex in high security to attend the trial.
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