‘Juvenile’ accused given chargesheet

KATHUA: The alleged juvenile offender detained in the case was produced before a Kathua magisterial court in veil amid tight security to be given the copies of the Crime Branch chargesheet against him and other prosecution documents.

Chief Judicial Magistrate A S Langeh asked the juvenile if he got the copies of the charge sheet and other documents, to which he replied in affirmative, following which his case was slated for next hearing on May 7.

CJM Langeh had dismissed his bail plea yesterday.

The counsel for the underage accused had moved the court for his bail last week, soon after the Crime Branch had filed its separate charge sheet against him on April 10, a day after filing one against the seven other adult accused in the case.

The juvenile had sought the bail on the ground of being underage, but CJM had rejected his plea on various grounds.

According to the Crime Branch charge sheet, he had allegedly played a key role in the abduction, rape and gruesome murder of the girl. The other accused arrested in the case include local resident Sanji Ram, his son Vishal Sharma and two special police officers.

Though the Crime Branch has filed a separate charge-sheet against the juvenile accused, it had claimed in its earlier charge-sheet for the adult accused that a medical examination had found him to be an adult of around 19 years of age. The court, however, had earlier rejected the claim.

According to the charge sheet against the underage accused, a school dropout, had lured the girl to a desolate place on the false pretext of helping her in finding her missing horses, held her captive at a 'devisthan' where she was drugged and allegedly raped by him, Vishal and SPO on different occasions before being brutally killed.