Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by the accused seeking an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Kathua rape and murder case, ANI news agency reported.
The victim, an eight-year-old girl from a minority Muslim nomadic community, had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in the Jammu region on 10 January this eyar. Her body was found in the same area a week later.
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 is held in Jammu and the probe handed over to the CBI.
The state police’s Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main chargesheet against seven persons and a separate chargesheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district last week. The chargesheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.
