Crime

Kathua rape-murder case: Supreme Court stays trial, asks accused to respond to plea seeking transfer of case outside JK

The Supreme Court of India has stayed the trial in the Kathua rape and murder case as it has asked the accused to respond to the plea which seeks transfer of the case from JK to Chandigarh.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra stayed the trial which was listed for Saturday in Kathua, saying it would hold a hearing on the plea for transfer of trial on May 7.

Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir government had opposed the transfer of the trial saying that it had a different penal code and transfer of trial would pose inconvenience to the witnesses.

Meanwhile, the Government of India on Friday told the apex court that it would extend whatever assistance was required from it.

GoI is a respondent in a related petition seeking transfer of investigation from the Jammu and Kashmir Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation, a plea opposed by the rape-cum-murder victim’s father.

On Thursday the Supreme Court had said that the Kathua gang-rape and murder case will be shifted out of JK at the ‘slightest possibility of lack of a fair trial’  .

The Bar Council of India (BCI) Committee had gavin a clean chit to the lawyers who are charged with blocking the filing of Challan in the Kathua rape and murder case. The BCI also supported the demand of a CBI probe into the case.

 

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