SC asks J&K govt to file reply on ‘custodial torture’ of Kathua case witness

New Delhi, August 21

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Jammu and Kashmir government to file its response on a plea alleging custodial torture of the Kathua case witness, by August 27.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud fixed the matter for further hearing on August 29.

The top court was hearing a plea by Talib Hussain, a key witness in the Kathua gang rape-and-murder case, alleging custodial torture by the state police in an alleged rape case lodged against him by his sister-in-law.

The court had earlier asked the lawyer, appearing for Hussain’s cousin Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, to satisfy it on how a writ of habeas corpus was maintainable in the present case where the accused was in lawful police custody following an FIR being registered against him.

The counsel had referred to a Supreme Court judgment and said irrespective of the nature of detention, whether legal or illegal, such a petition could always be filed in cases of custodial torture.

The petition was opposed by the lawyer, appearing for Hussain;s sister-in-law who has filed the FIR alleging rape, that there were 10 FIRs against the accused and no relief should be granted without hearing the victim.

The plea seeks protection of Hussain in custody and alleges that he had been brutally beaten up in the alleged fake rape case.

Hussain is a key witness in the Kathua case, in which an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community was abducted in January and gang-raped before being killed.

The state police’s Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main chargesheet against seven people and a separate chargesheet against a juvenile.

The chargesheet has revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly abducted, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed. PTI