SC shifts Kathua trial to Pathankot
Trial should be held incamera, rules top court
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday transferred the Kathua gang rape and murder case outside Jammu and Kashmir to Pathankot in Punjab.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra directed that the trial should be held in-camera, be fast-tracked and conducted on a day-to-day basis to avoid any delay.
The bench also ruled that the top court will monitor the case and no court, except the SC, will hear any petition related to the case. The judgment was passed on the petition filed by the girl’s father seeking the transfer of the case owing to threat to the family, their friends and their lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat.
A separate plea was also filed by two accused seeking that the trial in the case be held in Jammu and the probe handed over to the CBI.
The top court has, for now, ruled out a CBI investigation. The next date of hearing is July 7.
The apex court said the trial must be fair to the victim’s family as well as the accused.
The victim, an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community, had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in the Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.
The top court has also directed the state government to continue providing security to the victim’s family, their lawyer and witnesses and the accused in the case.