Prosecutors quiz 100th witness

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, November 13

The special public prosecutors (SPPs) examined 100th prosecution witness on Tuesday in the Kathua rape and murder case. SPPs Santokh Singh Basra and Jagdeeshwar Kumar Chopra examined J&K police head constable Hans Raj as their 100th witness.

They have listed nearly 350 witnesses. Basra maintained that they would be examining 20 to 30 more in the next few days.

“The final decision on which witnesses to examine and which ones to leave out will be taken only after consultation with the J&K crime branch, the investigating agency,” he said.

The defence counsels will start examining their witnesses once the SPPs conclude theirs. Basra refused to give a time frame for the case to conclude.

The prosecutors have so far examined several star witnesses, the most prominent among them being Dr Jyoti Rao, Shakina Begum, Bikramjit Singh and Akhtar Hussian. In legal parlance, a star witness is one who provides crucial information in a criminal case.

Dr Jyoti Rao, medical officer of Kathua Civil Hospital, had testified that the minor had died due to “asphyxiation and was sexually assaulted.”

She was head of the three-member board of doctors constituted on the request of the Station House Officer, Hiranagar police station, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place.

Shakina Begum had told the court that she had seen the girl in the company of two of the accused, the juvenile and Parvesh Kumar alias Manu, in the Rasana forest area just before the crime.

Bikramjit Singh had testified that accused Deepak Khajuria, a Special Police Officer, had confessed in front of him that he along with the juvenile had murdered the girl.

Akhtar Hussian had claimed that he had seen main accused Vishal Jangotra on January 13. The defence is contending that on that day Vishal was at his college in Meerut.

Basra confirmed that he had moved an application to launch perjury proceedings against one witness, Ajay Kumar, who resiled after earlier having supported the prosecution theory.