8 ACCUSED OF GANG RAPING INDIAN GIRL CLAIM TRIAL
Case has stoked long-simmering religious tensions in Jammu and Kashmir state
EIGHT men accused of raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl pleaded not guilty yesterday to the horrific crime that has sparked revulsion and brought thousands to the streets.
Four policemen and a Hindu temple custodian were among those accused of gang raping and killing a Muslim girl from a poor tribe in Jammu and Kashmir state, where the charged case stoked long-simmering religious tensions.
The accused men appeared in court in the city of Kathua yesterday for the first time since being arrested in February.
Ankur Sharma, a lawyer for the accused, said the men pleaded not guilty and were willing to take a lie-detector test, adding that the court adjourned the case for procedural reasons.
“The court has directed that charge sheet copies be provided to all accused. The next date of hearing is April 28,” Sharma said.
The victim was kidnapped, drugged and raped over five days at the Hindu temple in January before being strangled and bludgeoned with a rock.
The case ignited moral outrage and mass demonstrations across India after details of her gruesome death were made public by police last week.
The temple’s custodian, retired public servant Sanji Ram, is accused of conspiring with four police officers, a friend, his son and a juvenile nephew to kill the girl and destroy crucial evidence.
Scenes of lawyers trying to stop police from entering court to file charges against the accused — all Hindus — evoked disgust and a warning from India’s highest court against attempts to obstruct justice.
The case has heightened fears of communal tensions in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state.
The accused allegedly plotted the crime to drive the nomadic Muslim community from a part of Hindu-dominated Jammu.
Muslim activists condemned what they saw as a crime against their community. Some Hindu groups argued that the accused had been unfairly charged.
Yesterday, a lawyer representing the victim’s family filed a petition in the Supreme Court, requesting the trial be relocated from the restive state.
The lawyer, Deepika S. Rajawat, said she had been receiving death threats for “daring to pursue the case”.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the media must not reveal the girl’s identity in their reporting of the case.
Two state ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party resigned after attending a rally in defence of the accused.
The party was also accused of trying to shield a state lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh after a 17-yearold girl accused the powerful politician of raping her last year.
Kuldeep Singh Sengar was only arrested last week, despite the girl’s family trying to file charges against him for nearly a year.
On Sunday, a sexual attack on an 11-year-old girl was reported in the Gujarat city of Surat.
A crowd held a silent candlelight march for the victim.
“The body was recovered on April 6 by the side of a highway and, according to a post-mortem report, the girl was sexually assaulted and murdered on April 5,” said Surat police commissioner Satish Sharma.
He said the victim, who was 11 according to the post-mortem, had not yet been identified and that police from neighbouring states had been asked to help find her family.
“We have put our best teams in place with all senior police officials. To nab the criminals, we first need to identify the body.”
The post-mortem revealed that the girl was strangled and smothered, with 86 signs of minor injuries, including sexual assault, he said, adding that some of the injuries were old.