SIT team faces ‘torture’ FIR

Jammu, Oct. 22: Four months after six people were convicted in the 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in a Kathua village, a court here directed the police on Tuesday to register an FIR against six members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the case, for allegedly torturing and coercing witnesses to give false statements.

Judicial magistrate Prem Sagar gave the direction to senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Jammu on an application by Sachin Sharma, Neeraj Sharma and Sahil Sharma, who were witnesses in the case, saying cognizable offences are made out against the six.

The court directed registration of an FIR against the then SSP R.K. Jalla (now retired), ASP Peerzada Naveed, deputy superintendents of police Shetmbari Sharma and Nissar Hussain, subinspector Urfan Wani and Kewal Kishore of crime branch of police and asked the SSP (Jammu) to report compliance by next date of hearing on November 11.

In June this year, district and sessions judge Tejwinder Singh sentenced

The court directed registration of an FIR against the then SSP R.K. Jalla (now retired), ASP Peerzada Naveed, deputy superintendents of police Shetmbari Sharma and Nissar Hussain, sub-inspector Urfan Wani and Kewal Kishore of crime branch of police

to life imprisonment the three main accused, while awarding five years in jail to three others for destruction of evidence in the case that shook the nation.

The BJP had to sack two of its state ministers, Chowdhury Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, for participating in a rally in support of the accused.

According to the charge sheet in the Kathua case, the girl, who was kidnapped on January 10 this year, was allegedly raped in captivity in a small village temple in the district after being kept sedated for four days before she was bludgeoned to death.