Supplementary chargesheet this week, say officials

: The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s crime branch will submit its supplementary chargesheet this week before the Pathankot court, which is hearing the gruesome case of rapeand-murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua this January, officials said here on Sunday.

The chargesheet would be submitted this week in which further investigation carried out by crime branch personnel would be presented in the court against the eight people arrested for allegedly committing the heinous crime, they said.

Earlier this month, the crime branch had informed the Supreme Court that they would be submitting a supplementary chargesheet in the case. The apex court had given them eight weeks to file it.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and justices DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra had on July 9 issued a detailed order asking the crime branch to file the supplementary chargesheet within eight weeks after obtaining due sanctions.

The fresh supplementary chargesheet is likely to highlight other angles of the alleged conspiracy that was hatched by the accused people, who are at present in district jail of Gurdaspur in Punjab.

The crimebranch had arrested Sanji Ram, his son Vishal and his juvenile nephew, two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma and friend Parvesh Kumar.

It also names head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took ₹4 lakh from Sanji Ram and destroyed crucial evidence. Both, Raj and Dutta, have been dismissed from the services.

The district and sessions court in Pathankot framed charges of rape and murder against the seven accused in the case on June 8.

Sanji Ram, considered the main accused, is alleged to have hatched the conspiracy with the other accused for kidnapping the girl as part of a strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area.

The fate of the eighth accused, a juvenile, was yet to be decided after the crime branch of the J&K Police moved an application in the high court claiming him to be an adult.

ON JULY 9, SC BENCH HAD ISSUED A DETAILED ORDER ASKING THE CRIME BRANCH TO FILE THE SUPPLEMENTARY CHARGESHEET WITHIN EIGHT WEEKS