Row erupts as envelope with ‘evidence’ turns out empty

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, July 16

An envelope produced by the prosecutors in the Kathua abduction, rape and murder case, purportedly containing strands of hair of the deceased girl, turned out to be empty.

Pandemonium prevailed in the court room when Special Public Prosecutor Santokh Singh Basra opened an envelope handed over to him by the J&K crime branch, which, in turn, had received it from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, New Delhi.

Six strands of hair of the deceased girl had been sent to the laboratory for DNA testing after the crime was committed in January.

After the DNA tests, the same envelope, in which the strands were sent to the lab in the first place, was to be produced in the court as evidence.

Basra, thinking that the envelope contained strands of hair which might not have been tested, opened it. With the envelope being empty, defence counsel Anil Kumar Sawhney started claiming that “both the prosecutors, Basra and JK Chopra, do not know what they are doing as they are producing an empty envelope in the court.”

Order was soon restored and the proceedings went on. The DNA report has already been produced in the court on May 31 along with the challan.

The report, dated April 3, 2018, says that the DNA tests prove that the hair strands collected from Devisthan (temple), where the alleged rape took place, match with those of the deceased girl.

The laboratory analysed 14 packets of evidence containing vaginal swabs, hair strands, blood samples of four accused, viscera of the deceased girl, the girl’s frock, simple clay, and blood-stained clay. Vaginal swabs matched with the DNA of the accused as did some other samples. Hair strands found in the temple where the girl was raped matched with that of the girl and the accused.

The trial is being presided over by Dr Tejwinder Singh, District and Sessions Judge, on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, defence lawyer Sawhney objected to the manner in which the prosecution were producing witnesses without informing him in advance.

“The prosecutors are playing hide and seek. They do not even inform me about the names of witnesses to be produced. I have moved an application before the judge and have requested him to order the prosecutors to inform me well in advance the names of witnesses to be produced,” said Sawhney.

Defence counsel targets prosecution 

• Six strands of hair of the deceased girl had been sent to the laboratory for DNA testing after the crime was committed in January.
• Special Public Prosecutor Santokh Singh Basra, thinking that the envelope contained some strands of hair which might not have been tested, opened it.
• With the envelope being empty, defence counsel Anil Kumar Sawhney started claiming that “both prosecutors, Basra and JK Chopra, do not know what they are doing as they are producing an empty envelope in the court.”