Kathua 'juvenile' accused's trial to start after SC order

New Delhi: Shubam Sangra, the accused previously considered juvenile in the rape-murder of an eight-year-old known as Kathua victim, will be undergoing trial after the Supreme Court ordered he will be treated as an adult. The crime was committed four years ago.

He is currently lodged in a juvenile home in Kathua under the custody of a Chief Judicial Magistrate. He is now likely to be shifted to a normal jail.

The top court on Wednesday said Shubam Sangra was not a minor at the time of the offence. He is a key accused in the gangrape and murder of a child from a nomadic community in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir. A bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and J B Pardiwala clarified that there was a "clear and unambiguous case in favour of the accused person's juvenility on the basis of his birth certificate and school records, he cannot take shelter under such documents when a heinous crime has been committed."

The eight-year-old girl was kidnapped on January 10, 2018, and kept sedated for four days. She was raped in captivity in a village temple and later bludgeoned to death.

The victim's family's lawyer Mubeen Farooqi said the trial should take place in Malerkotla in Punjab because other accused faced justice there. "We can't have two appellate courts for the same case." The Supreme Court has already stated a causal or cavalier approach by a lower court in such cases cannot be permitted. The bench also chastised the Judicial magistrate and high court over their approach in deciding whether the accused was a juvenile at the time of the crime.

Then chief justice Dipak Misra had ordered the shifting of the trial from Kathua and made it clear that the District and Sessions Judge of Pathankot shall himself take up the trial and not assign it to any additional judge. The bench which comprised Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra also ordered daily in-camera hearings.

The special court on June 10, 2019, sentenced three main accused - Sanji Ram, the mastermind and caretaker of the 'devasthanam' (temple); Deepak Khajuria, a Special Police Officer; and Parvesh Kumar, a civilian - to life imprisonment till their last breath under Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) sections relating to criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, gang rape, destruction of evidence, drugging the victim and common intention.

The other three accused - Sub Inspector Anand Dutta, Head Constable Tilak Raj, and special police officer Surender Verma were convicted for five years and a Rs 50,000 fine for the destruction of evidence.

Vishal Jangotra, son of Sanji Ram, was acquitted over the benefit of doubt. The trial of Sangra may bring Jangotra's fate back to the spotlight. A senior official said a statement given by Sangra has pointed at Jangotra's involvement. "We are sure that the court will treat that statement as extracted from an adult and revisit the case."