Kathua case: Trial of juvenile accused to begin today

A juvenile justice board has framed charges against a minor in the case of gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua and has fixed Monday for examining prosecution witnesses and commencing trial.

According to an order served to the Crime Branch here, officials have been asked to bring in their prosecution evidence and witnesses for the trial to begin.

   

The order has left the prosecution baffled as the CrimeBranch contested before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court last year that he isnot a minor. The case has seen only adjournments till date.

According to the notice, the charges were framed against theaccused by the Juvenile Justice Board Kathua on July 8 and “the next date ofhearing has been fixed on July 15”.

“The case has been fixed for prosecution evidence.  Kindly arrange the presence of publicprosecutor appointed in the case so as to examine the prosecution evidence/witnesses,” it said.

The juvenile is accused of raping and murdering the younggirl.

The Crime Branch had filed a petition in the High Courtagainst his claim of being juvenile.

The Crime Branch petition had stated that the chief judicialmagistrate in Kathua erred in accepting the accused’s claim of being ajuvenile.

It had also annexed a report of the medical board ofGovernment Medical College, Jammu, which said the accused was “not less than 19and not more than 21”.

The trial in this case was shifted to the Pathankot SessionsCourt on the directions of the Supreme Court last year.

The Pathankot Sessions Court had on June 10 this yearsentenced Sanji Ram, dismissed special police officer Deepak Khajuria andParvesh Kumar to life imprisonment while sacked policemen Anand Dutta, TilakRaj and Surender Verma — were handed five years in jail.The verdict came 17 months after the girl wasbrutally gang-raped inside a ‘devisathan’ (local temple) and later killed. Shewas kidnapped on 10 January 2018 and her body was found on 17 January.

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