P’kot prepares for Kathua case hearing

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, May 30

The police have set up barricades near the judicial complex, besides deputing CCTV vans outside the district court complex here as hearing in the Kathua gang rape and murder case is scheduled to begin here on Thursday.

Vivek Sheel Soni, SSP, said arrangements pertaining to the security of the girl’s family and lawyers had been completed. He, however, refused to divulge further details.

The security of seven of the eight accused is the responsibility of the J&K police. One of the accused is a juvenile and he will thus not appear in the court. The J&K police will produce the charge-sheet as well as all seven accused in the court on Thursday.

Sources say the public prosecutor, citing security concerns, will be moving an application requesting the judge to keep the accused in judicial custody in Pathankot.

The case has been moved to the city on the orders of the Supreme Court, which has directed the judge to hold in-camera day-to-day hearings. The accused are temple custodian Sanji Ram, his son Vishal, a juvenile nephew, special police

officers Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Verma, juvenile’s friend Parvesh Kumar Mannu and investigating officers Tilak Raj and Anand Dutta, who allegedly took money from Sanji Ram to destroy evidence.

Rape and murder

An eight-year-old girl, who was kidnapped on January 10, was allegedly raped in captivity in a village temple in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir. She was sedated for four days before being done to death, a development that sparked off a national outrage.

‘Youngest’ judge

India’s ‘youngest’ judge will preside over the hearings in the case. District and Sessions judge, Dr Tejwinder Singh, was appointed a judge in 1991 when he was just 23. His feat was mentioned in the Limca Book of Records.  He has served in almost every district of Punjab.

Gurdaspur lawyer is public prosecutor 

Gurdaspur: The J&K government’s Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has appointed Gurdaspur-based senior advocate Santokh Singh Basra as its special public prosecutor in the case.