Kathua victim’s father seeks death penalty for convicts

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 10

Just over a month after a Pathankot court convicted six of the seven accused in Kathua rape and murder case, the victim’s father on Wednesday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the solitary acquittal and seeking death penalty for the convicts after describing it as “rarest of the rare case”.

In the appeal filed this afternoon through counsel Rajvinder Singh Bains and Utsav Bains, the victim’s father submitted that the trial court sentenced three convicts Sanjhi Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar to life imprisonment for “cold blooded, pre-planned brutal murder, without any provocation after abduction, administering drugs and rape”.

The father added the trial court considered the fact that such a barbaric crime had been committed by the accused. But, at the same time, it was incapable of delivering justice that the committers of the monstrous crime deserved.

He added the “measure of punishment” depended on the atrocity of the crime, the criminal’s conduct and the victim’s defenseless state. “The punishment should serve as a deterrent to the similar depraved minds.”

He added the trial court failed to appreciate the gravity of offence, mode of its commission, the victim’s age, impact on the society and the evidence on record which showed that offence was committed in connivance with each other. “Therefore, the order passed by the court below is liable to modified to the extent of enhancing the sentence from life imprisonment to death of all the accused.” The appeal is likely to be listed before Bench headed by Justice Rajiv Sharma on July 18, when appeals filed by the accused come up for hearing.

The father submitted the accused wanted to teach a lesson to a community by killing and raping a young member. Three other accused-police officers Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Surender Kumar had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for destruction of evidence, even though it was proven beyond all the reasonable doubt that “all the respondents/accused in connivance with each other had committed the most heinous type of barbaric rape and murder of a helpless and defenseless eight-year-old nomadic girl”.

He added the trial court simply failed to consider that there would be no reason to destroy evidence and receive illegal gratification from the main accused, if the three were not hand in gloves with them. “There is no reason to save the skin of the main accused. Moreover, destroying of evidence itself is more grievous offence than committing the offence.”

The father added the prosecution, during the course of trial, examined 114 witnesses. The statements of the prosecution witnesses clearly established that it was carefully planned strategy to remove “minority nomadic community from the area” and all the accused conspired with each other and committed a heinous crime where an eight-year-old was abducted, drugged, gang raped repeatedly and then bludgeoned to death.

He further contended that accused Vishal Jangotra’s plea of alibi was accepted by the trial Court on untenable grounds. There were five trains between Meerut and Kathua and some of these were daily.

“The distance between the two towns is merely 480 km it takes between nine to 11 hours for different trains to cover the same distance. Even by road, the distance can covered in 10 hours… Therefore the plea of alibi setup by the accused Jangotra through sister, ATM and other evidence of having participated in an examination did not meet the test of impossibility to be at the place of occurrence.”