Kathua rape-murder: Three get life term; 5-year jail for 3 others

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service 
Pathankot, June 10

A court in Pathankot on Monday sentenced three people to life term, hours after they were found guilty of gangrape and murder of an 8-year-old nomadic girl in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua in January 2018.

Sanji Ram, the caretaker of the temple where the crime took place, Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar, a civilian, have been convicted under Ranbir Penal Code sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, gangrape, destruction of evidence, drugging the victim and common intention, lawyers said.

They have been sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh each for murder, along with 25 years in jail for gangrape, PTI quoted lawyers as saying.  

Three accomplices—Sub Inspector Anand Dutta, Head Constable Tilak Raj and Special Police Officer Surender Verma—who were convicted for destruction of evidence have been handed over five years imprisonment.The court had acquitted  a seventh suspect, who is the son of main accused Sanji Ram. 

The eighth accused, a juvenile, is being tried in Kathua.

Lawyers defending Vishal Jangotra said he was away at college in Meerut, where he is pursuing a bachelors of science degree in agriculture, at the time of the crime. J&K crime branch’s chargesheet however said: “In the course of investigation, it transpired that Vishal actively took part in the rape and murder of the victim and later tried to create an alibi by resorting to manipulating attendance records of his college in connivance with Sanjhi Ram and a relative Kishore Kumar”.

The name of the victim and her father found no mention in the judgment “for the sake of maintaining the honour of the family of the victim”. The girl was addressed as Miss ‘A’ while her father was mentioned as Mr ‘Y’.  

Hearing in the case began in Pathankot on May 30, 2018, after the Supreme Court transferred it out of J&K.  The court heard the case for 247 days, with arguments finally concluding on June 3.

Some 114 prosecution and 18 defence witnesses were examined. Some 74 lawyers appeared in the case—57 for defence and the rest for prosecution. The case made international headlines, with the UN Secretary Antonio Guterres condemning the crime as “horrific”. Protests that were held across the country drew also politicians.       

According to the 15-page charge sheet, the eight-year-old girl, who was kidnapped on January 10 last year, was allegedly raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district after having been kept sedated for four days before she was bludgeoned to death.

The girl's body was found on January 17 and  autopsy confirmed gang rape and murder.

The court had framed charges under the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), including Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 376-D (gang-rape), according to the prosecution.

The case had become a bone of contention between the then ruling alliance partners PDP and the BJP after two ministers of the saffron party, Chowdhury Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, participated in a rally organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch in support of the accused arrested by the state crime branch.  With PTI inputs