Articles by "Kathua Rape Case"
Showing posts with label Kathua Rape Case. Show all posts

Hello Jammu News at 2:11:00 PM 0

New Delhi, Aug 21: The Supreme Court today directed the Jammu and Kashmir government to file its response on a plea alleging custodial torture of the Kathua case witness by August 27.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud fixed the matter for further hearing in August 29.

The top court was hearing a plea by Talib Hussain, a key witness in the Kathua gang rape-and-murder case, alleging custodial torture by the state police in an alleged rape case lodged against him by his sister-in-law.

The court had earlier asked the lawyer, appearing for Hussain's cousin Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, to satisfy it on how a writ of habeas corpus (produce the body) was maintainable in the present case where the accused was in lawful police custody following an FIR being registered against him.

The counsel had referred to a Supreme Court judgement and said irrespective of the nature of detention, whether legal or illegal, such a petition could always be filed in cases of custodial torture.

The petition was opposed by the lawyer, appearing for Hussain's sister-in-law who has filed the FIR alleging rape, that there were as many as 10 FIRs against the accused and no relief should be granted without hearing the victim.

The plea seeks protection of Hussain in police custody and alleges that he had been brutally beaten up in the alleged fake rape case.

Hussain is a key witness in the Kathua case, in which an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community was abducted in January and gang-raped before being killed.

The state police's Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven people and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile.

The charge sheet has revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 4:37:00 PM 0

Jammu, Aug 13: Two persons have been arrested for allegedly raping a girl in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said today.

On August 9, three men from Salalpur Marheen village raped a girl in Chabe Chak area of Rajbagh. The survivor's family registered a police complaint.

The police arrested two of the accused yesterday and a search is going on for the third suspect, said an official from Rajbagh police station.

The arrested were identified as Kulvinder Kumar alais Nanku, who is the main accused, and Ganesh.

In a second incident in Rajouri district, police booked two persons -- Rafiq and Yousef -- for alleged raping a girl in Manjakote area of the district yesterday, the police said. A complaint was filed by the girl's family. A manhunt has been launched to nab the accused. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 2:46:00 PM 0

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear a plea alleging that Talib Hussain, a key witness in the sensational Kathua gang rape and murder case, is being tortured by the Jammu and Kashmir police in a fake rape case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee considered the submission of a close relative of Hussain, seeking urgent hearing on the plea.

A habeas corpus (produce the body) writ petition has been filed by the cousin of the witness. It alleges that Hussain has been kept in illegal detention and being subjected to custodial torture.

Hussain's family alleged that he is being tortured in police custody in a fake rape case.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, counsel for the petitioner, later said Hussain has been subjected to torture in Sambha in the state and they are seeking "judicial intervention" in the matter.

The apex court has transferred the trial in the Kathua gang rape and murder case to Pathankot after taking note of the plea of the father of the victim apprehending threat to the family.

Hussain is a key witness in the Kathua gang rape case, in which an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community 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.

The state police's Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district. The charge sheet has revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 5:35:00 PM 0

New Delhi, Jul 2: The Supreme Court today 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. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 2:29:00 PM 0
Jammu, May 29 : The eight people accused in the case of the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community in Kathua will be produced before a court in Pathankot in Punjab on May 31 in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court, officials said today.

The Jammu and Kashmir's elite Crime Branch will produce the charge sheet in the case as well as all the accused in the case before the district and sessions judge in Pathankot. 

Officials said a police team along with the staff of Kathua's district and sessions judge will present all the files to the court in Pathankot, 30 km from Kathua, and request permission to translate all the documents from Urdu to English.

Citing security concerns in transporting the accused to court, the public prosecutor will move a plea to keep them in judicial custody in Pathankot, the officials said. 

After several petitions in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court as well as the Supreme Court, the case is finally set to move to the trial stage with the apex court directing the district and sessions judge in Pathankot to hold an in-camera hearing.

"The learned district and sessions judge, Pathankot, shall himself take up the trial and not assign it to any additional sessions judge and shall fast-track the trial and take it up on day-to-day basis so that there is no delay in trial," the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court order had said earlier this month.

The Crime Branch had submitted a charge sheet in the crime on April 9 before the Kathua court. The case came into the national limelight after lawyers of the Kathua bar association tried to prevent the police from filing the documents. 

According to the charge sheet, the eight-year-old girl, who was kidnapped on January 10 this 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 abduction, rape and killing of the child was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area, the 15-page charge sheet says. 

It names eight people, including temple custodian and alleged mastermind Sanji Ram, his son Vishal, a juvenile nephew and special police officers Deepak Khajuria alias 'Deepu' and Surender Verma.

The others arrested in the case are the juvenile's friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu as well as investigating officers head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.

The case became a bone of contention between the state government's alliance partners PDP and BJP. The saffron party had to sack two of its ministers Chowdhury Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga for participating in a rally of 'Hindu Ekta Manch' in support of the accused arrested by the Crime Branch.PTI
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Hello Jammu News at 3:56:00 PM 0
 Jammu, May 14 :  Former Minister and BJP MLA Choudhary Lal Singh of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday asserted that he is committed to remove the ‘black spot’ and tag of ‘pro-rapist’ slapped on Dogra community.
“The Dogras of Jammu region, who are comprised of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and all other religions were projected wrongly across the country and the worldwide in Kathua rape and murder case of a minor girl, which left a ‘black spot’ on their face,” Mr Singh told reporters here on Monday morning.
Mr Lal Singh said that his focus on demand for CBI probe in Kathua rape and murder case is just like Arjun’s target was eye of a fish in Mahabharata.
He said that people are very angry and annoyed over wrong projection of the case by the Kashmir based media having hand in glove with Delhi based media as a part of planned conspiracy, adding, “people demanded only CBI probe. What is wrong in it? The Kashmir centric leadership and media not only mishandled the case but also made an attempt to communalise it on all fronts.”
“Those who are arrested, if are the real culprits then no power on this earth can save them but there were other factual reports and truth too, which have been presented by different agencies,” he said and added that only CBI enquiry and nothing less than that will provide justice to them.
“If 2009 Shopian case can be transferred to the CBI days after the incident then why not the Kathua case even when we are demanding it from the very first day,” he said.
“I will fight for the pride of Dogra and remove the ‘black spot’ on their face.” he added.
Mr Singh also slammed opposition parties saying, “there is no existence of opposition at all in Jammu and Kashmir. Had there been opposition, they would surely have played their role positively and things would have been different.”
“The ‘Dogra Swabhimaan Rally’ being organized by the people on May 20 at Hiranagar will show the strength and fight for justice,” he added.
He however, lashed out at the PDP and National Conference asserting that these parties are habitual of announcing strikes and they also provoked people of Jammu to do the same in Kathua case but people here are sensible and intelligent and did fall trap to their nefarious designs.UNI
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