Six Persons Convicted in Kathua Rape and Murder Case

Kathua, June 10, 2019:

Six persons have been convicted in the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua. A district and sessions court in Pathankot delivered the verdict today.

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, the lawyers said. Ram’s son Vishal Jangotra is the only one to have been acquitted.

They have been sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh each for murder. 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, they said.

The eighth accused is a juvenile, whose petition on determining his age is yet to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

The eight-year-old child belonged to a minority nomadic community and went missing on January 10, 2018, from Rasana village in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir after she had taken horses out. Her bruised body with bite marks on her face was later found. It was alleged that she had been raped and murdered in a bid to scare the nomadic community away from that place.

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