The Hearing of the juvenile involved in the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, is slated for Monday. A juvenile justice board has framed charges against the minor and has fixed Monday for examining prosecution witnesses and commencing trial.
According to an order served to the Crime Branch here, officials have been asked to bring in their prosecution evidence and witnesses for the trial to begin.
Last year, the crime branch had contested before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court regarding the minor stating that he may not be one. The order had taken the prosecution by surprise. Till date, no verdict has been passed on the case and only adjournments have happened.
The notice states that the charges were framed against the accused by the Juvenile Justice Board Kathua on July 8 and “the next date of hearing has been fixed on July 15”. It further added, “the case has been fixed for prosecution evidence. Kindly arrange the presence of public prosecutor appointed in the case so as to examine the prosecution evidence/ witnesses.”
The crime branch had filed a petition in the high court against his claim of being juvenile and said that the chief judicial magistrate in Kathua erred in accepting the accused’s claim of being a juvenile.
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It had also attached the report of the medical board of Government Medical College, Jammu, which said the accused was “not less than 19 and not more than 21”.
The Supreme Court had earlier shifted the case to the Pathankot Sessions Court.
On June 10, the Pathankot Sessions Court sentenced Sanji Ram, special police officer Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar to life imprisonment while sacked policemen Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Surender Verma, were handed five years in jail.