Justice at last

The recent court verdict has proved that justice can be delayed, but not denied. The lawyer who was defending the minor girl of Kathua who was brutally killed before being raped, said that it is a tribute to that little girl. The court has sentenced six out of the seven accused in this case and the one who has been released was done by the court by giving him benefit of doubt.

Recently, Court sentenced three men including a temple caretaker to life imprisonment till last breath for the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua shortly after convicting them along with three others for the ghastly crime that shook the nation 17 months ago.

Sanji Ram, the mastermind and caretaker of the ‘devasthanam’ (temple) where the crime took place in January last year, Deepak Khajuria, a Special Police Officer, and Parvesh Kumar, a civilian–the three main accused–were spared death penalty, a punishment sought by the prosecution during the year-long in-camera trial in the court of judge Tejwinder Singh here.

The perpetrators of this crime have acted in such a manner as if there is a ‘law of jungle’ prevalent in the society. The facts in the case are many but truth is one that under a criminal conspiracy, an innocent eight-year old minor girl has been kidnapped, wrongfully confined, drugged, raped and ultimately murdered.  The three who were given life term were convicted under Ranbir Penal Code(RPC) sections relating to criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, gang rape, destruction of evidence, drugging the victim and common intention, prosecution lawyer Santokh Singh told media outside the court.