Kathua rape-murder case: SC orders accused to be tried as adult, not juvenile

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that an accused in the alleged Kathua rape-cum-murder case has to be tried as an adult, and not as a juvenile, on the basis of medical opinion in absence of any other conclusive proof.

A bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and J B Pardiwala set aside an order by the Jammu and Kashmir Court order of Kathua to treat the accused as juvenile.

Pronouncing the order on behalf of the bench, Justice Pardiwala said, "The accused is to be tried as an adult and not a juvenile in the Kathua case."

The Jammu and Kashmir government filed an appeal claiming that the High Court had erroneously affirmed the order of a trial court holding the accused to be a minor.

In its judgement, the bench said, "The medical opinion regarding the age in absence of any other conclusive evidence should be considered to determine the age range of the accused. Whether medical evidence can be relied upon or not depends on the value of evidence. Thus order passed by CJM Kathua is set aside and thus the accused is held not to be a juvenile at the time of crime."

According to the police, the eight-year-old girl from the nomadic community of Bakerwal was allegedly kidnapped from Kathua’s Rasana area on January 10, 2018.

The victim was kidnapped, drugged, hit by a stone, raped and strangulated by the accused, the police claimed.

Her body was found dead seven days later.

A trial court in Pathankot had sentenced three convicts in the case -- Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar -- to life imprisonment.

Ram was alleged to be the mastermind of the crime. Khajuria was a police officer. Special Police Officer Surender Verma, head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta were awarded five years in prison for destroying evidence.

The trial court acquitted the seventh accused, Vishal Jangotra, son of Sanji Ram, by giving him the “benefit of doubt”.