‘Accused Claimed To Be Juvenile In Kathua Case Is Above 20 Years’

PATHANKOT — The medical report of an accused in the Kathua rape and murder case who had claimed to be a juvenile was submitted before the district and sessions court in Pathankot on Monday by the Jammu and Kashmir police’s crime branch in which his age was stated to be more than 20 years, special public prosecutor JK Chopra said.

The court hearing, which resumed after the summer break, could begin only after lunch.

District and Sessions Judge Tajwinder Singh had issued directions to the crime branch to conduct a bone ossification test to ascertain the age of Parvesh Kumar alias ‘Mannu’, one of the eight accused in the brutal rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir in January.

“The report has been submitted and final arguments on it will be concluded tomorrow after which the judge will pronounce his verdict,” Chopra said.

Asked what was the opinion of the doctors about the accused’s age, Chopra said, “According to it (medical opinion), his age is stated to be 20 plus.”

The court had ordered the test after the defence counsel moved an application in the first week of June, requesting to treat him as a minor citing his matriculation certificate. The crime branch had constituted a team of doctors, comprising medicos from various streams including the radiology department, and the accused was examined on June 22 and 23.

The court had directed Senior Superintendent of Police RK Jalla to supervise the medical examination and submit the report when the court reopens after a 16-day summer break.

While seven of the accused including Kumar are facing trial in the court here on the directions of the Supreme Court, the eighth accused in the case is facing trial in a juvenile court in Kathua district.

The defence counsel on Monday filed a separate application before the district and sessions court claiming that Kumar had allegedly been subjected to torture on June 23 by the crime branch, a charge denied by the police officials who said it will be contested it in the court.

The petition claimed that the crime branch had been persuading Kumar to turn an approver in the case. However, police officials maintained that there was no move for making anyone approver in the case

SC Rejects Witnesses Plea For Probe  

The Supreme Court on Monday asked three witnesses, who had alleged harassment at the hands of special investigation team (SIT) probing Kathua gang rape and murder case, to approach the Jammu and Kashmir High Court with their grievances.

The three witnesses, Sahil Sharma, Sachin Sharma and Neeraj Sharma, who were the classmates of one of the key accused in college, had alleged harassment by the SIT and sought an independent enquiry into it.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud refused to order a probe into the allegation of the witnesses that they were harassed during the process of recording of their statement before the state police.

The bench disposed of their petition giving them the liberty to approach the HC with their grievances.

The court was hearing the matter relating to the gangrape and murder of an eight-year old girl, belonging to a minority nomadic community, who had disappeared from near her home in a village close to Kathua in the Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium and advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir government, informed the court that the witnesses have already been re-examined and their statements have been re-recorded.

The apex court had allowed the three college students to be accompanied by their relatives during their further questioning by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

The top court, which had rejected the plea for videography during the quizzing of the three witnesses by the Crime Branch, asked the police to carry out the probe in “fair manner”.

The students, aged between 19 and 20 years, had alleged that they were harassed and coerced by the police and summoned to re-record their statements.

Earlier, the court had allowed the state government to file a status report in gangrape and murder case of the minor girl after it was alleged that the three college friends of accused Vishal Jangotra might have misled the probe.

The students have alleged that they were tortured and threatened by the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police during the probe and sought protection by a central agency.

The Jammu-based students, who are pursuing B.Sc in Agriculture at a college in Muzzafarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, are classmates of Jangotra, the plea said.

The students alleged that they were “coerced to make statements contrary to the facts that Jangotra was with them at Muzzafarnagar from January 7 to February 10. During that period, he, along with the petitioners, attended examinations and practical papers”.

“The petitioners were subjected to physical and mental torture from March 19 to March 31 by the respondents (state police officers),” the plea had claimed.

The petitioners had also sought Rs 50 lakh each as compensation for the “physical and mental agony and loss of study and future prospects”.

The apex court had transferred the trial in the Kathua gangrape and murder case from Jammu and Kashmir to Pathankot in Punjab, but had refrained from handing over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation saying there was no need as the investigation had been conducted and the charge sheet filed.

The top court, which ordered a day-to-day “in-camera” trial in the case, had said there was a need to shift the trial outside the state as “fear and fair trial” were contradictory and “cannot be allowed to co-exist.”

The state police has filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district.

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