The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a plea from Sanji Ram, the mastermind behind the 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua, refusing to suspend his life sentence.
The application came up for hearing on Thursday before a division bench of justices Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Lalit Batra through video conferencing during which the counsel for Jammu and Kashmir R S Cheema requested for a new date that was granted.
The girl was allegedly repeatedly assaulted before being killed at a village in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district in January.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made in and around the court and in Kathua in view of the pronouncement of the judgement, officials said Sunday.
The judge started his order with the couplet from Ghalib's ghazal -- Pinha tha daam-e-sakht qareeb ashiyaan ke, udhne hi nahi paye the ki girftar hum hue.
The court also framed charges for destruction of evidence and under Section 328 (causing hurt by poisoning with an intent to hurt) of the RPC.
The Friday morning encounter of all the four accused in the brutal rape-and-murder case of a 25-year-old woman veterinarian last month in Hyderabad triggered a nationwide debate on justice delivery, with one side supporting it as speedy justice and the other raising concerns over 'extra-judicial' measures. Here is a look at the legal status of some rape cases which shook the country.
