Kathua rape-murder case: Mastermind moves HC for suspension of life term, case posted to Feb 24

The application came up for hearing on Thursday before a division bench of Justices Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Lalit Batra through video conferencing.

Advocate Sonpreet Singh Brar, appearing for Sanji Ram, sought the suspension of the life term awarded to his client by a sessions court of Pathakot in June 2019.

“There are various lacune in the investigation conducted by the prosecution agency as well as in the statements recorded during trial court,” the petitioner has claimed.

Appearing for Jammu and Kashmir, Senior Advocate RS Cheema and advocates Arshdeep Singh Brar and Satish Kumar requested for adjournment, which the court granted.

Describing the incident as a “devilish and monstrous crime”, the Pathankot court had awarded life term to Sanji Ram, the mastermind and caretaker of the ‘devasthanam’ (temple) where the crime took place, Deepak Khajuria, a Special Police Officer, and Parvesh Kumar, a civilian. Three other policemen were sentenced to five-year imprisonment for cover up and destruction of evidence while Sanji Ram’s son Vishal was acquitted.

Earlier, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in two separate orders passed in December, had suspended sentence of former sub-inspector Anand Dutta and former head constable Tilak Raj and released them on bail pending an appeal. They were among the five policemen sentenced for five years for destruction of evidence.
The case triggered a nationwide outrage when the girl was found murdered on January 17, 2018.