Court convicts six accused in Kathua rape and murder case; 1 acquitted

The district court in Pathankot today convicted six accused in the rape and murder of eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir(J&K). The court acquitted one of the accused person in the case.

Village head Sanjhi Ram, two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma and head constable Tilak Raj including Parvesh Kumar and Anand Dutta were convicted by the Pathankot court.

Also Read: What we know about the Kathua rape case

Vishal Jangotra, one of the accused, who is the son of main accused Sanjhi Ram, was acquitted in the case.

The court will announce the quantum of punishment at 2pm today.

The court had conducting day-to-day in-camera trial since June last year after the Supreme Court had directed that the case be shifted out of J&K after lawyers in Kathua had prevented crime branch officials from filing the chargesheet in the case.

According to the chargesheet, the eight-year-old girl was kidnapped on January 10 last year and allegedly raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district in J&k after having been kept sedated for four days before she was bludgeoned to death.

Charges of rape and murder were framed by the district and sessions judge against seven out of the eight accused. The trial against the juvenile is yet to begin as his petition regarding his age is to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.