The Supreme Court of India on Monday transferred the trial of the Kathua rape and murder case to Pathankot in Punjab.
Recently, the apex court had said that the case will be shifted out of JK at the ‘slightest possibility of lack of a fair trial’. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said its “real concern” was to see that a fair trial was conducted.
The trial should be fair for the victim’s family and for the accused, the bench had added.
The girl’s father had moved the apex 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.
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The state police’s Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district last week. The charge sheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.
Earlier, The Supreme Court of India has stayed the trial as it has asked the accused to respond to the plea which sought the transfer of the case from JK to Chandigarh.
