HC to hear Kathua case appeal today

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 17

Dubbing as “important” the plea filed by Kathua rape and murder victim’s father challenging the solitary acquittal and seeking death penalty for three convicts facing life sentence, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today made clear its intent to hear the matter on Thursday.

The order by the Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu to hear the matter along with connected matters already scheduled for hearing on Thursday came after preliminary hearing this morning. At the very onset, counsel for the father Utsav Bains gave a brief background of the case.

The developments took place just over a month after a Pathankot court convicted six of the seven accused in the rape and murder case.

In the appeal filed through counsel Rajvinder Singh Bains and Utsav Bains, the victim’s father submitted that the trial court sentenced three convicts Sanjhi Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar to life imprisonment for “cold-blooded, pre-planned brutal murder, without any provocation after abduction, administering drugs and rape”

The father added that the “measure of punishment” depended on the atrocity of the crime, the criminal’s conduct and the victim’s defenseless state. “The punishment should serve as a deterrent to the similar depraved minds”.