Supreme Court transfers Kathua rape and murder case to Punjab’s Pathankot court

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled out a CBI inquiry into the Kathua gang rape and murder and transferred the case to a court in Punjab’s Pathankot.

The top court allowed Jammu and Kashmir government to appoint a public prosecutor and said the state government should provide security to the victim’s family, their lawyer and witnesses in the case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was hearing petitions seeking shifting of the trial to Chandigarh and handing over the investigation to the CBI.

The victim, an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community, had disappeared



from near her home in a village near Kathua in the Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

The Supreme Court had earlier given a stern warning and said it would transfer the case from the local court in the “slightest possibility” of lack of fair trial, saying the “real concern” was to hold proper prosecution.

The girl’s father had moved the top court earlier, apprehending threat to the family, a friend and their lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat. A separate plea was also filed by two accused seeking that the trial in the case be held in Jammu and the probe handed over to the CBI.