Kathua rape-murder case: HC suspends sentence, grants bail to former cop

In 2019, the sessions court in Pathankot had convicted Dutta, along with head constable Tilak Raj and special police officer Surender Verma, and sentenced each to five-year imprisonment for allegedly destroying evidence in the rape case, allegedly after accepting Rs 4 lakh as bribe from a retired revenue official, Sanji Ram, a prime accused in the case.

Following their conviction, all three were dismissed by Jammu and Kashmir administration.

Earlier, on December 16, the sentence of head constable Tilak Raj was suspended. Both Dutta and Tilak Raj have already undergone more than half of the sentence awarded to them by the trial court.

The court had awarded life term to Sanji Ram, along with Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar, both co-accused in the case.

Reacting to the court’s order, former J&K chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday tweeted, “Perturbed that the policeman convicted for destroying evidence in Kathua rape case was granted bail & his jail term suspended. When a child raped & bludgeoned to death is deprived of justice, it becomes obvious that the wheels of justice have completely collapsed.”

The eight-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Kathua district in January 2018 and the verdict in the case was pronounced on June 10, 2019, by a court in Pathankot, Punjab, where the case was shifted on the directions of the Supreme Court.

As the then chief minister heading the PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K, Mufti had ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the case. Two then ministers in her Cabinet – Chander Parkash Ganga and Choudhary Lal Singh — had publicly joined family members and relatives of the accused in their demand for a CBI inquiry into the matter.

Following widespread public criticism, both were later made to quit their cabinet berths by the BJP leadership.