Jammu, April 16: All the eight accused in the Kathua rape and murder case were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Kathua as the trial started on Monday.

Under heightened security the eight, including Sanji Ram, the alleged mastermind of the heinous crime, were produced before CJM Kathua, A.S. Langeh, who then postponed the hearing in the matter for April 28.

The father of the eight-year-old victim has already moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the trial to outside Jammu and Kashmir, preferably Chandigarh.

The apex court will hear the matter at 2 p.m.

Relatives of the victim present outside the Kathua court accused the media of ignoring extensive reportage of this heinous crime for nearly three months.

The victim was abducted on January 10 and held captive inside a temple in Rasana village of Hiranagar area.

She was drugged and raped repeatedly before being murdered. Her body was found dumped in the adjoining forest area on January 17.

The family had trouble even burying the body as some locals disallowed burial accusing the family of trying to occupy land in the name of a graveyard.

Father of the victim has told the media the body was finally buried in far away forest lands.

 

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New Delhi, May 17 (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the government for "informing" Pakistan about targeting terror infrastructure as part of Operation Sindoor, saying it was a crime and asking who had authorised it.

In a post on X, Gandhi questioned External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar for publicly admitting that the government of India (GOI) had informed Pakistan of the action and asked how many aircraft the Indian Air Force lost as a result.

"Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?" said Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.

He also shared an undated video of Jaishankar saying India had informed Pakistan of the action against terror infrastructure on its soil.

Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video, "At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying, 'We are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military.'"

"So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice," the minister can be heard saying in the clip.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB), however, has debunked claims that Jaishankar had said India informed Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor. In a post on X, the PIB's Fact Check Unit said the minister had not made any such statement and that he was being misquoted.

Operation Sindoor was the Indian offensive against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.