‘Hostile witness’ in Kathua case faces perjury charge

Ajay Kumar retracted the confessional statement he had made earlier

The Jammu and Kashmir crime branch that presented a charge sheet in the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua, before the Pathankot sessions court, said yesterday it has initiated perjury proceedings against a “hostile witness.”

The witness, Ajay Kumar alias ‘Ajju’, in his statement in the sessions court had retracted the confessional statement he made earlier before a magistrate, during the investigation of the case by the state crime branch.

A crime branch officer said the district and sessions judge Pathankot, Tejwinder Singh has served a notice to Kumar asking him to explain why the perjury action should not be initiated against him.

Kumar claimed that another accused Parvesh Kumar, alias ‘Mannu’, had given him a detailed description of the rape and murder of the eightyear-old girl.

The trial of the minor nomad girl’s rape and murder was transferred by India’s Supreme Court to Pathankot for a faster day-to-day hearing process, keeping the gravity of the crime in view.