Supplementary charge sheet in Kathua rape case this week: Officials

The Jammu and Kashmir Police's crime branch will be submitting its supplementary charge sheet this week before the Pathankot court, which is hearing the gruesome case of rape-and-murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua this January, officials said here today.

The charge sheet would be submitted this week in which further investigation carried out by crime branch personnel would be presented in the court against the eight people arrested for allegedly committing the heinous crime, they said.

Earlier this month, the crime branch had informed the Supreme Court that they would be submitting a supplementary charge sheet in the case. The apex court had given them eight weeks to file it.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra had on July 9 issued a detailed order asking the crime branch to file the supplementary charge sheet within eight weeks after obtaining due sanctions.

The fresh supplementary charge sheet is likely to highlight other angles of the alleged conspiracy that was hatched by the accused people, who are at present in district jail of Gurdaspur in Punjab.

The crime branch has arrested Sanji Ram, his son Vishal and his juvenile nephew, two special police officers Deepak Khajuria alias 'Dipu' and Surender Verma and friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu.

It also names head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Sanji Ram and destroyed crucial evidence. Both Raj and Dutta have since been dismissed from the police services.

The district and sessions court in Pathankot framed charges of rape and murder against the seven accused in the case on June 8.

Sanji Ram, considered the main accused, is alleged to have hatched the conspiracy with the other accused for kidnapping the girl as part of a strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area.

The fate of the eighth accused, a juvenile, was yet to be decided after the crime branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police moved an application in the high court claiming him to be an adult.