After SC order, Kathua victim’s kin await trial of accused in Pathankot

NEW DELHI: Seeking justice for over four years, the family of the eight-year-old Kathua rape-murder victim is eagerly waiting for the start of the trial against Shubam Sangra, who will be treated as an adult following a Supreme Court order.

The lawyer for the victim’s family, Mubeen Farooqi, told PTI from Malerkotla in Punjab that the trial should take place in Punjab as was done for the other accused and not anywhere else. If needed, they will approach the Supreme Court again to get clarity on this issue, he said.

“We can’t have two appellate courts for the same case,” the lawyer said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held Sangra, a key accused in the sensational gangrape and murder of the girl from a nomadic community in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018, was not a minor at the time of the offence and ordered his trial as an adult.

The top court also observed that a casual or cavalier approach by courts in such cases cannot be permitted.

A bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and J B Pardiwala said

SC HAD HELD THAT SANGRA, A KEY ACCUSED IN THE GANGRAPE AND MURDER OF THE GIRL IN KATHUA IN 2018, WAS NOT A MINOR AT THE TIME OF OFFENCE

though there was a “clear and unambiguous case in favour of the accused person’s juvenility on the basis of his birth certificate and school records, he cannot take shelter under such documents when a heinous crime has been committed”.

It also chastised the CJM and the high court over their “casual and cavalier” approach while deciding the accused was a juvenile when the crime was committed.

The minor girl was kidnapped on January 10, 2018 and was raped in captivity in a small village temple after being kept sedated for four days. She was later bludgeoned to death.

Farooqi cited the 2018 order of the Supreme Court under which the trial of the case was transferred to Pathankot in Punjab and a day-to-day hearing was ordered after some lawyers in Kathua had prevented the Crime Branch officials from filing a charge sheet.

“Now this is clear that the trial of the case has to be held in Pathankot only and if need be, we will approach the Supreme Court again to get clarity on this issue,” he said.

The three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then chief justice Dipak Misra had ordered shifting of the trial from Kathua and also made it clear that the District and Sessions Judge of Pathankot shall himself take up the trial and not assign it to any additional judge.

Besides ordering daily in-camera hearings, the bench, which also comprised Justice D Y Chandrachud, who is now the Chief Justice of India, and Justice Indu Malhotra, had made it clear that “as this court (Supreme Court) is monitoring the matter, no court shall entertain any petition pertaining to the case”.

“Though the apex court in 2018 gave all protection to Sangra, who was treated as a juvenile at that time, things have changed after Wednesday’s order. Hence, the trial should start at Pathankot only,” Farooqi said.