The Supreme Court on Monday said the trial in the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kashmir’s Kathua, will be held in Punjab’s Pathankot. The child’s family wanted transfer of the case following rallies in Jammu and Kashmir in favour of the accused.
The apex court will monitor the trial. Moreover, the Court has said that no other court will hear any case on the issue “as we are monitoring it”. This means there won’t be any hearing of the case in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in which the accused have sought a CBI investigation.
The child was kidnapped in Kathua in January, drugged, starved and gangraped before she was brutally killed. The accused include two policemen.
The top court on Monday also directed the District and Sessions Judge Pathankot to personally undertake trial proceedings and to ensure the trial is fast-tracked.
Lawyers in Jammu had protested in the court premises and stopped police officers from entering the court for hours to be able to file the chargesheet. The advocate of the child’s family, Deepika Singh Rajawat, has said earlier she has been threatened so that she does not appear in the case.
