While enough stories float about the juvenile’s criminal past, locals express disbelief that 60-year-old Sanjhi Ram could be involved in the heinous crime.
Kathua: It was apparently a quick slide into the world of crime for the 15-year-old juvenile accused in the brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir.
The boy, a student of class 10, lived with his parents and two elder siblings in Hiranagar, a small town on the Kathua-Jammu highway. His father is a peon in a government school.
The family’s claim that he is 15 years of age is contentious, with at least one DNA report said to show his age as 19 years.
While his parents focussed their attention on his mentally challenged older brother, locals say the boy reportedly fell into bad company and began consuming intoxicants. Some months ago, he was thrown out of school after an altercation with another student over a girl.
A few weeks later, he picked up a fight with a Gujjar when the latter built a mosque for his community to pray in. The boy and his friends confronted the Gujjar to not use a loudspeaker, but the Gujjars allegedly got together and beat him up. The matter was resolved without any need for the police to get involved.
After the fight, the boy’s mother requested her brother Sanjhi Ram to take him away to his house in village Rasana, where he allegedly took part in the gang rape and murder of the child.
According to the chargesheet filed by the crime branch in the case, the juvenile allegedly raped the child several times along with his cousin and friends before killing her.
Disbelief among locals
The chargesheet adds that Sanjhi Ram (60) wanted to oust Gujjars from the area and facilitated the crime.
However, unlike the stories which go around in the area about the accused juvenile, Sanjhi Ram’s alleged role in the case evokes disbelief from locals. A patwari in the irrigation department, Sanjhi Ram retired from government service recently. He has land in Rasana, where he also has a large house and a cattle shed. His two daughters are married, and son Vishal (also an accused) is studying in a college in Meerut.
Sanjhi Ram allegedly planned the kidnapping and murder of the girl, and used the ‘devisthan’ – literally, place of the goddess – in the jungle surrounding his house to confine her. The devisthan is a square room with three doors, where the idols of the kul devi or the goddess protecting these families is installed. While the key to one door is with Sanjhi Ram, the other keys are with others in nearby villages, his family claimed.
Denying his role in the crime, Sanjhi Ram’s family is at pains to explain that any of the families with the keys to the devisthan could have entered it for prayers, and a child hidden barely a few feet away from the place where the idols are installed could not have gone unnoticed.
Exams written by proxies
Vishal, a first year B.Sc. student in Meerut, is alleged to have been called by the juvenile accused to rape the victim and satisfy his lust. He arrived in Rasana the next day and allegedly raped the girl and then helped his father and the other accused in getting rid of her dead body. The family, however, claimed that he was in college those days appearing for his examinations.
“His travel tickets to Meerut, his exam attendance, and his answer sheets are all available for anyone to see,” said his mother Darshana Devi.
However, a report suggests that Vishal and three of his friends never appeared for the exam conducted at a centre in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. The CCTV footage gathered by the crime branch from the centre shows the four were absent when the exams were held; instead proxy candidates appeared for the exams.
Most barbaric
Special police officer Deepak Khajuria, was arrested with three other policemen in the case. He is a 29-year-old resident of Damiyal, a bigger village adjoining the 15-house village of Rasana.
SPOs are also called daily wager cops, as they are employed on contract to boost the local police force. They are given a uniform, but are paid nominal wages.
Khajuria owns land next to the piece of land owned by the victim’s father. Locals say the two had reportedly fought over the land some time ago.
Khajuria belongs to the dominant caste in the area, which owns almost every business. The initial protests launched against the crime branch investigations included many who claimed Khajuria was innocent.
According to the chargesheet, Khajuria’s role in the crime is most barbaric. He and the juvenile took turns raping the child before killing her. She was first allegedly strangulated by Khajuria and later crushed to death with stones by the juvenile.
Khajuria had allegedly come up with the plan to administer her medicines to keep her in a drugged state.