Kathua: trial of accused, who claimed to be minor, to begin soon

Srinagar: In the sensational case of an eight-year-old being gang-raped and murdered in Jammu & Kashmir's Kathua district, decks have been cleared for the trial of one among the eight accused, Shubam Sangra, who was treated as a minor by the trial court. The trial will start in a Punjab court, PTI reported.

In November last, the Supreme Court declared Sangra an adult. A court in Kathua was scheduled to hear charges against Sanghra on May 23.

In the 2018 case on the horrifying act on the nomadic girl, the Supreme Court disposed of a miscellaneous application arising out of its impugned final judgement of November 16, 2022, and directed that the further trial of Sangra, pending before the court of sessions judge, Kathua, will commence in the court of Principal District and Sessions Judge in Pathankot in Punjab.

After Sangra was declared adult, he was shifted from a juvenile home to Kathua jail.

The crime branch, in its charge sheet, accused Sangra of administering sedatives to the girl to an overdose and rendering her "incapacitated" to resist sexual assault as well as her murder.

"She was forcefully administered five tablets of Clonazepam of 0.5 mg each on January 11, 2018, which is higher than the safe therapeutic dose. Subsequently, more tablets were given...The signs and symptoms of an overdose may include drowsiness, confusion, impaired coordination, slow reflexes, slowed or stopped breathing, coma (loss of consciousness) and death," the charge sheet quoted a medical expert.

An application for a birth certificate had brought out the truth about Sangra that he is an adult, and there was a conspiracy to proclaim that he is a juvenile.

Sangra's father had applied for birth certificates for his three children and gave random dates of birth in his 2004 application. When no place of birth was mentioned for the elder two, Sangra, the younger's was mentioned as a Hiranagar hospital. But an investigation into that found the claim was false.

Further, a board of medical experts submitted a report that Sangra was not less than 19 and not more than 23 on January 10, 2018, at the time of the crime.

A special court on June 10, 2019, sentenced three men to life imprisonment "till last breath" - Sanji Ram, the mastermind and caretaker of the 'devasthanam' (temple) where the crime took place, special police officer Deepak Khajuria, and a civilian named Parvesh Kumar. Three other accused -- Sub Inspector Anand Dutta, Head Constable Tilak Raj, and special police officer Surender Verma -- were convicted of destruction of evidence to cover up the crime and handed down five years in jail and ₹ 50,000 fine each. They are out on parole. The seventh accused, Vishal Jangotra, son of Sanji Ram, was acquitted, PTI reports.