SRINAGAR: The father of the eight-year-old nomad girl, who was brutally raped and murdered in 2018 January, has termed the conviction of six out of eight accused by District and Sessions court Pathankot as “half justice” and also alleged that the main accused Sanji Ram’s son Vishal and nephew were involved in the gruesome act too.
“They were the first involved in the case and the others came into the picture later,” he said.
Talking to this newspaper, the victim's father said the court has done “half justice” with his daughter.
“All the eight accused arrested by J&K police’s crime branch and against whom charge sheet was filed are culprits in the case and none should have been spared,” he said.
He criticised Vishal's release.
He, however, said the court should award death sentence to all the six accused who have been convicted.
“No leniency should be shown to them. And they should be hanged so that such incidents don’t recur in future”, he said.
The nomad girl was kidnapped from Kathua's Rasana village on January 10 last year while grazing horses and a week later her body with violence and burn marks was recovered near the temple.
The J&K police investigation revealed that the girl was abducted and kept in the temple, where she was drugged and repeatedly raped, before being brutally killed.
The Crime branch investigation has found eight people including former revenue official Sanji Ram, his son Vishal and nephew (a juvenile), their friend Parvesh Kumar, two Special Police Officers (SPOs) Deepak Khajuria and Surender Kumar, Sub Inspector Anand Dutta and Head Constable Tilak Raj involved in rape and murder of the minor girl and destroying the evidence.
All the accused have been arrested and rape and murder charges were framed against seven by District and Sessions Judge Pathankot while trial against the juvenile is yet to begin.