Pathankot: The much-awaited trial in the rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir began here on Thursday with seven of the eight accused being produced before the district and sessions judge after after the Supreme Court shifted the hearing outside Jammu and Kashmir. After hearing arguments and counter arguments, the court asked the prosecution to submit translated copies of charge sheet, statements and case diaries of the case from Urdu to English to everybody, including the defence lawyers, by June 4.
A thick security blanket was thrown over the four-storey court complex as the battery of 31 lawyers representing the defence and the three-member prosecution team, faced off against each other. Also presenting their arguments was a four-member team, representing the family.
The seven accused in the case of the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community in January were brought in a police bus to the Judicial Court Complex on the old Pathankot-Delhi highway around 10.40 am, and presented before District and Sessions Judge Tejwinder Singh about 50 minutes later. The eighth accused in the case is a juvenile. According to Pathankot Bar Association president Reshpaul Thakur, such a high profile case was being heard in the Pathankot court for the first time.
