6 Accused Convicted in Kathua Rape-Murder Case: Key Highlights

Protesters during a midnight candlelight vigil against the Kathua and Unnao rape cases. Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo: PTI)

• A special court in Pathankot on Monday, 10 June, convicted six people accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

• The quantum of punishment is expected to be announced around 4 pm on Monday.
• Those convicted are Sanji Ram, the village head, Parvesh Kumar and two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma. Also convicted are Head Constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Sanji Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.
• Sanji Ram, Parvesh Kumar and Deepak Khajuria had been booked under sections 363 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), 376D (gangrape) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC).

Catch all the live updates on the Kathua rape and murder case here.

• Meanwhile, Surender Verma, Anand Dutta and Tilak Raj had been booked under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the RPC.
• A seventh accused, Vishal, who is the son of main accused Sanji Ram, has been acquitted.
• Vishal was acquitted after the judge accepted Vishal's plea of alibi that he was writing an exam in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut when the incident happened.
• According to the 15-page charge sheet, the eight-year-old girl, who was kidnapped on 10 January last year, was allegedly raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district after having been kept sedated for four days before she was bludgeoned to death.
• The day-to-day trial commenced in the first week of June last year at the district and sessions court in Pathankot in neighbouring state of Punjab, about 100 km from Jammu and 30 km from Kathua, after the Supreme Court ordered that the case be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The in-camera trial in the case that shook the nation ended on 3 June.

(With inputs from PTI.)