Court said poetic justice needs to be done in Kathua case, rejected defence pleas on defective probe

The special court, hearing the rape and murder case of an 8-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua in Jammu region, has termed the crime "devilish and monstrous" committed in most "shameful, inhumane and barbaric manner" for which "poetic justice" needs to be done to its perpetrators.

District and sessions judge of Pathankot, which was hearing the matter on the direction of the Supreme Court, convicted six people on June 10 in the case which included Sanji Ram, dismissed policeman Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar, who have been sentenced to life in jail.

"Heaven and hell are no geographical locations, our thoughts, actions and character create the situation of heaven or hell for us," judge Dr Tejwinder Singh wrote in the beginning of his 432-page judgment, a copy of which is with PTI.

He said it was needless to say the commission of this "devilish and monstrous crime has sent shockwaves across the society and the actual guilty needs to be brought under the sword of justice."
He also observed the crime committed against the minor is "shameful, inhumane and barbaric" but said the evidence brought on record has to be tested on a "touchstone in order to find out the real culprits, so that no innocent person is crushed under the wheels in an unjust manner."
The judge, after relying on several Supreme Court judgments, said, "If at all, at any point of time, there was a minor lapse in the investigation, the benefit of the doubt cannot be given to the accused in the present trial which is very serious in nature."