An Indian fast track court on Monday began hearing the case of eight men accused of involvement in the brutal gang rape and murder of an 8-year-old child in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua region.
Appearing before the court, the seven accused pleaded not guilty and asked the judge for a lie detector test.
The eighth accused is a juvenile against whom a separate chargesheet was filed. He has moved a bail plea before the chief judicial magistrate, which is yet to be heard.
The next hearing in the case which has appalled and transfixed the entire country will be held on April 28th.
According to the police reports filed in the court, the victim from a Muslim nomadic community was abducted and held captive in a temple shed in Kathua in the month of January. She was then reportedly sedated and repeatedly raped by several men, including two cops for three consecutive days before she was taken to the forest and battered to death.
Seeking justice for their daughter, parents of the 8-year-old told ANI they want the accused to be “hanged”.
The horrifying incident triggered rallies in cities across the country after two ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party came out in defence of the eight accused, resulting in communal tensions between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim population.
The ministers involved have, however, resigned from their posts in the state government.
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Outrage over Kathua rape case Source: AAP
Meanwhile, the country’s apex court has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to provide protection to the victim’s family and lawyers who had filed a plea before the Supreme Court to transfer the trial out of the state citing security reasons.
A case has also been filed against a group of eight advocates who had allegedly tried to prevent the Crime Branch from filing a chargesheet against the accused.
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