Only Kashmir News Desk
Pathankot, Jun 10 (Only Kashmir): A local court in Pathankot on Monday convicted six accused facing charges in the infamous Kathua rape and murder of eight-year-old nomadic girl.
While three accused including Sanjhi Ram (Master Mind), Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar have been held guilty under section 302 (murder), 376D (gang rape) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), remaining three accused Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Surender Verma have been held guilty under section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the RPC. Seventh accused Vishal Jangotra has been acquitted from all charges.
Pertinently, the victim girl, who belonged to a Muslim nomadic tribe, was kidnapped on January 10 last year and held captive at a village temple in Kathua. She was drugged, starved and repeatedly raped for days. Finally, she was strangled and her head was bashed in with a rock. One of the accused allegedly begged to rape her one last time before she was killed. The incident evoked outage on the international level.
Amid worldwide outrage over the savage killing of the child, the case was handed over to the Crime Branch.
The case drove a wedge between the then BJP-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alliance in the state after two BJP leaders – Chowdhury Lal Singh and Prakash Ganga – participated in a rally organized in support of the accused.
Meanwhile, the Counsel for the accused SK Sawney said that they would file an appeal against the conviction of six persons before the Punjab and Haryana high court. (OK)
