2018 Kathua rape-murder: HC dismisses mastermind's plea seeking suspension of life sentence
Chandigarh, Mar 18 (PTI): The mastermind behind the 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua does not deserve the "concession of suspension of sentence at this stage", the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said while dismissing a plea from former temple caretaker Sanji Ram.
Ram, who was caretaker of the 'devasthanam' (temple) where the crime took place in January 2018, was sentenced to life by a sessions court in Pathankot the following year. His nephew Parvesh Kumar and special police officer Deepak Khajuria were also given life terms.
A division bench of Justices Gurvinder Singh Gill and Ramesh Kumari passed the order on Ram's plea on March 6. The three-page order was made available earlier this week.
Without commenting on the merits of the case, the court said it was of the opinion "that it is not a case where the applicant/appellant deserves the concession of suspension of sentence at this stage".
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"The application, as such, is dismissed," it said.
The court, however, directed the registry to list Ram's main appeal against conviction for final hearing in September this year given the fact that he has already spent a substantial amount of time in custody.
According to the 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir crime branch in April 2018, the nomadic girl was abducted on January 10 that year and raped in captivity in the small village temple in Jammu's Kathua region that was exclusively manned by Ram. She was kept sedated for four days and later bludgeoned to death, it said.
Arguing for suspension of Ram's life sentence, senior advocate Vinod Ghai said before the high court that the prosecution examined as many as 114 prosecution witnesses but no concrete evidence was brought on record to establish his involvement.
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He also said Ram had already undergone a substantial period of more than eight years and deserves the concession of suspension of sentence.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir was represented by senior advocate R S Cheema. Advocates Mandeep Singh Basra and Anupinder Brar represented the victim's family.
Cheema recalled the manner in which heinous crime was committed and said based on the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses and the circumstances brought on record, the accused's complicity is "clearly evident".
"It has been submitted that since upon findings of guilt having been recorded by the trial court, the presumption of innocence of the applicant is no longer available to him, the applicant does not deserve to be released on bail," he said.
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The Pathankot sessions court had also sentenced three policemen to five years imprisonment for cover up and destruction of evidence while Ram's son Vishal was acquitted.
In June 2019, then sessions judge Tejwinder Singh said, “In the present case, facts are many but truth is one that under a criminal conspiracy, an innocent eight-year-old minor girl has been kidnapped, wrongfully confined, drugged, raped and ultimately murdered. The perpetrators of this crime have acted in such a manner as if there is a 'law of jungle' prevalent in the society."
The judge summed up the enormity of the crime with a couplet by Mirza Ghalib: "Pinha tha daam-e-sakht qareeb ashiyaan ke, udhne hi nahi paye the ki girftar hum hue" (hunters had placed the net near a nest and the young one was caught before it could take its first flight).
In his 432-page judgment, the judge described the crime as a "devilish and monstrous" one committed in the most "shameful, inhumane and barbaric manner" for which poetic justice needs to be done to its perpetrators.
After initial hiccups, the case, which triggered nationwide outrage, was handed over to the crime branch, which unravelled the conspiracy.
In 2018, the Supreme Court directed the case to be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir and directed the sessions court in Pathankot to hear it on a daily basis.
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UP journalist booked over LPG queue visuals, elderly man dies same day outside gas agency
Lucknow: A television journalist in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad has been booked for allegedly circulating misleading visuals of people standing in queues outside a gas agency, even as a 70-year-old man died the same day after collapsing near an LPG outlet in the district.
An FIR was registered on March 13 at Kamalganj police station against Anubhav Mishra, a reporter with Noida-based Hindi Khabar channel, under Section 353(1)(b) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with public mischief through circulation of false content or rumours via electronic means.
Newslaundry quoted police as saying that the case relates to visuals showing long queues outside a gas agency in Kamalganj. The videos were aired and posted on social media by the channel. According to officials, the footage was two days old and did not reflect the current situation.
A senior police official said the images were misleading and created panic about an alleged LPG shortage. The administration has maintained that there was no shortage of cylinders in the district and that distribution was proceeding normally.
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On the same day the FIR was lodged, Mukhtiyar Ahmed, a 70-year-old zardozi worker from Lal Sarai in Farrukhabad, collapsed outside a Bharat Gas agency and was later declared dead at a private nursing home. Family members said he had stepped out early in the morning to collect a cylinder after failing to receive booking confirmation through his mobile phone a day earlier.
Relatives claimed he had been standing in a queue for nearly two hours before he fell ill. Videos circulating locally showed bystanders attempting to revive him before he was taken to hospital. He had been undergoing treatment for a heart ailment in Kanpur for the past six months, family members said.
District Supply Officer Surender Kumar said there was no cylinder shortage and disputed claims of long waiting hours. He said the deceased had reached the agency around 8.30 am and fell ill within a short span. Kumar added that due to a high volume of bookings, the server had temporarily failed to generate delivery authentication codes, but vendors were issuing paper receipts to consumers.
Earlier, based on inputs shared by Mishra, Hindi Khabar had posted a social media update referring to chaos over LPG supply in Farrukhabad and difficulties faced by consumers due to booking issues. The post was later taken down.
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Police sources said the FIR was filed after it was found that the visuals used were recorded on March 11 and were circulated on March 13 in a manner that could create unrest. Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar, the complainant in the case, stated that when police visited the spot, no such long queues were found.
Mishra worked as a reporter for five years. He said he had forwarded the visuals to his channel on the same day he received them and maintained that several agencies in the district were facing booking-related issues. He noted that if authorities found any factual inaccuracies, they could have sought clarification instead of registering an FIR.
The family of the deceased has not lodged any complaint. District Supply Officer Surender Kumar and Farrukhabad Superintendent of Police Aarti Singh along with other officers visited the family later in the day and a cylinder was delivered to their residence.
