Sentencing in Kotkhai case deferred, CBI seeks death penalty

Shimla: At the hearing in pronouncement of quantum of sentence in the July 2017 Kotkhai rape and murder case, held in the court of special judge here on Tuesday, the CBI demanded death penalty for the convict while the defence counsel sought concession in the sentence. The defense counsel was present in the court room while the CBI counsel was connected virtually.
The court hearing lasted for about two hours before the matter was posted for June 18. Earlier, due to Covid-19 curfew in the state, case hearing was deferred five times. On April 28, the court of special judge of Shimla had convicted accused Anil Kumar alias Neelu Charani after holding him guilty of the crime on all four charges. The court was first to pronounce the quantum of sentence on May 11, but the hearing was deferred by a week due to the imposition Covid curfew in the state, then to May 28, June 3 and then June 8. When the convict was presented before the court on June 8, the court posted the matter to June 15.
The defence counsel argued against death penalty to the convict, saying his mother was dependent on him. However, the CBI counsel argued that the convict had two more brothers and they could take care of his mother.
A minor girl had gone missing in Kotkhai on July 4, 2017, and her body was found from the forests two days later. The post-mortem report had confirmed rape and murder and a case was registered. The incident had led to massive public outcry and massive protest demonstrations were held across the state.
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SC refuses to hear ex-IGP’s plea for restoration of bail
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea for restoration of bail to former Himachal Pradesh IGP Zahur Haider Zaidi in a custodial death case, saying that attempting to influencing a witness, who is a senior IPS officer, is a “very important” charge. Zaidi, one of the accused in the case related to the custodial death of a man who was among those arrested on charge of gang-raping a minor school girl in Kotkhai in Shimla district in 2017, was granted bail on April 6, 2019, by the top court which later transferred the case from Shimla to Chandigarh. The special trial court at Chandigarh, in January 2020, cancelled Zaidi’s bail after a prosecution witness and IPS officer Soumya Sambasivan alleged that she was being pressured by him to influence the trial. “If you can attempt to influence an IPS officer then you can influence and tamper with other witnesses also,” said a vacation bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M R Shah. PTI