On the 18th of July, the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) issued a notice to the accused of the Kathua rape and murder case of 2018.
The notice was issued after the family of Asifa, an 8 year old, filed a petition seeking an increment in the sentence given to the 6 accused.
The convicts are Sanji Ram, Anand Dutta, Parvesh Kumar, Deepak Khajuria, Surender Verma and Tilak Raj.
On the 10th of January 2018, Asifa was kidnapped from her village and brutally gang raped for days by a group, which included a teenager, police officers and a temple priest. On the 17th of January, the girl’s body was found in a forest.
A bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and H.S. Sidhu issued the notice and scheduled the hearing on the 7th of August.
Utsav Bains, the advocate representing the victim’s family, addressed the media and said, “The court has issued a notice to all the accused and the State of Jammu and Kashmir in the matter.”
The father of the Asifa challenged the verdict of a special court of Pathankot and sought for the punishment awarded to be increased. He also demanded action against those accused.
On the 10th of June, the special court in Pathankot sentenced 3 of the accused to life imprisonment and 5 years in prison to the remaining three.
Three out of the 6 were convicted under Section 302 (Murder) and Section 376 D (Gang rape) of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC.) The other 3 convicts were charged under Section 201 (Destruction of evidence) of the RPC.
The hearing for the case is scheduled on the 7th of August.
Stay tuned for further updates.
