Crime

Kathua rape-murder case: Supreme Court says no to CBI probe, protection to witnesses

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday refused to change the investigative agency in the Kathua rape and murder case, reported the news agency ANI.

The court also refused to give protection to the witnesses in the case.

An eight-year-old girl belonging to a nomadic Muslim tribe was abducted, drugged, gang-raped, tortured and killed in January, according to the Crime Branch chargesheet. The court has fixed the matter for hearing on May 17.

Recently, the apex court had said that the case will be shifted out of JK at the ‘slightest possibility of lack of a fair trial’.  A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said its “real concern” was to see that a fair trial was conducted.

The trial should be fair for the victim’s family and for the accused, the bench had added. the case was transferred to Pathankot, Punjab.

The girl’s father had moved the apex court earlier, apprehending threat to the family, a friend and their lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat. A separate plea was also filed by two accused seeking that the trial in the case be held in Jammu and the probe handed over to the CBI.

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