Srinagar: The trial in the alleged Kathua rape and murder case will begin on Monday at the court of the district’s Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) even as Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, has written to the Chief Justice of the State Court, seeking a fast track court to conclude within 90 days the trial in the case.
The accused include two Special Police Officers (SPOs), the custodian of a local temple where the victim, an 8-year-old nomad girl, was allegedly held, drugged, raped repeatedly and then killed, his son and two others police officers and also a juvenile against whom a separate charge sheet was filed by the Crime Branch of the J&K police earlier this week.
The chief judicial magistrate of Kathua will be committing one of the charge sheets, in which seven people have been named, to the sessions court for trial as mandated under the law. The chief judicial magistrate will, however, hold the trial for the juvenile as it is the designated court under the juvenile act, officials said.
The State government has appointed two special public prosecutors, both Sikhs, for the trial in the sensitive case apparently to ensure "neutrality" in view of Hindu-Muslim polarisation over the case.
