The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider a plea of two accused in the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua that the trial in the case be held in Jammu and the probe handed over to the CBI. The plea of the accused is directly opposite to what the eight-year-old's father had moved in the Supreme Court earlier.
The case is being investigated by the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir police. Expressing satisfaction with the probe conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir police in the case, the father had sought transfer of the trial from Kathua court to Chandigarh.
However, the accused are asking for the opposite, seeking a CBI probe and a trial in Kathua district itself.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud considered the plea of the accused, Sanji Ram and Vishal Jangotra, that they be impleaded as parties to the petition filed by the victim's father.
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At the same time, the Supreme Court said that its "real concern" was to see that a fair trial is conducted in the Kathua gangrape and murder case. "If we find slightest possibility of lack of fair trial, we will transfer the case out of Kathua," the Supreme Court stated.
Meanwhile, the Bar Council of India's inquiry panel rejected the allegations against lawyers of Jammu Bar Association of threatening victim's lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat or preventing cops from filing chargesheet in the court, reported news agency ANI.
The child from a minority nomadic community had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.
The eight-year-old's father had moved the apex court earlier, apprehending a threat to the family, a friend and their lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat. The Crime Branch filed the main chargesheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district last week. The chargesheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.