Chandigarh: The Punjab & Haryana High Court Thursday issued notice to the Jammu and Kashmir government and all the accused in the Kathua rape and murder case.
On a petition filed by the father of the eight-year-old gang rape and murder victim to set aside the acquittal of Vishal Jangotra, and a harsher sentence to the other convicted, a division bench headed by Justice Rajiv Sharma said justice will be done in the case.
Vishal Jangotra is the only person who was acquitted by the trial court in Pathankot on 10 June.
The bench said it won’t let the case “hang” for too long. The next hearing is on 7 August.
The counsel for the Jammu and Kashmir government, senior advocate R.S. Cheema, wanted the case to be heard after 15 August, saying the government would also file an appeal against the acquittal and the two cases can be heard together. He proposed that the case be heard after the next break in the high court since it involved a huge volume of record.
However, the bench rejected his request, observing that the cases cannot be timed keeping in mind the personal lives of the advocates.
Also read: Kathua judge says there was communal tension in the area before 8-year-old’s rape & murder
Seeking justice
Appearing through advocates R.S. Bains and Utsav Bains, the victim’s father also sought death penalty for the three convicted for life — Sanjhi Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar.
He further sought a case under section 302 (abetment to commit murder) of the Indian Penal Code for the other convicted in the case — police officers Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Surender Kumar. All three were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for destruction of evidence.
After the case came up for preliminary hearing Wednesday, Justice Sharma dubbed the matter important and decided to hear it Thursday.
An application was moved by Dutta Thursday for bail and suspension of his sentence. This was opposed by Utsav Bains who said the policemen in the case had not just destroyed evidence but actively connived in the rape and murder of the child.
The heinous gang rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl child in January last year become one of the most politically sensitive cases in Jammu and Kashmir. The trial in the case was shifted from Jammu to Pathankot in Punjab in May last year after the victim’s family approached the Supreme Court.
The trial court relied on Zee News footage to acquit Sanjhi Ram’s son Vishal, accepting his plea that he was not present in Jammu when the crime was committed.
Also read: These are the people who campaigned to get justice for Kathua’s 8-year-old girl