Eight people were detained in relation to the gruesome gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl, including Shubam Sangra.After being deemed an adult by the Supreme Court in November, the way has been cleared for the start of Shubam Sangra’s trial in the 2018 Kathua gangrape and murder case in a court in Punjab.In connection with the shocking gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in the Kathua area of Jammu and Kashmir, Sangra was one of eight suspects detained.
The further trial of Sangra, currently pending before the court of sessions judge, Kathua, will begin in the court of Principal District and Sessions Judge in Pathankot in Punjab, the Supreme Court ordered in its April 24 decision on a miscellaneous application arising out of its impugned final judgement of November 16, 2022.Mubeen Farooqi, the victim’s family’s attorney, stated from Malerkotla in Punjab that the case should be tried there, just like it was for the other defendants, and not outside. They would go back to the Supreme Court if necessary for clarification on this matter, he added.
The attorney remarked, “We can’t have two appellate courts hearing the same case.The shocking gangrape and murder of a young girl from a nomadic tribe in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, in 2018 led to the arrest of Sangra, a main suspect. The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Sangra was not a child at the time of the crime and ordered his adult trialEven while there is a “clear and unambiguous case in favour of the accused person’s juvenility on the basis of his birth certificate and school records, he cannot take shelter under such documents when a heinous crime has been committed,” a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and J B Pardiwala stated.It also criticised the CJM and the high court for their “casual and cavalier” decision-making process about the accused’s age at the time of the offence.
The little girl was taken hostage on January 10, 2018, and after being kept unconscious for four days, she was raped while being held captive in a small rural temple. Later, she was fatally bludgeonedFarooqi referenced the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling, which ordered a day-to-day hearing and the transfer of the case’s trial to Pathankot, Punjab, after several attorneys in Kathua hindered the Crime Branch authorities from presenting a charge sheet.
