VICTIM

Asifa Bano
Age :- 8 years old
Location :-Rasna village, Kathua , Jammu and Kashmir
Date of missing :-10th January 2018
FIR filed on :- 12th January 2018.
Dead Body recovered on :- 17th January 2018
 ACCUSE
D
Sanji Ram
Deepak Khajuria
Priest in family temple
Retired bureaucrat Police Officer

Vishal Parvesh Kumar

Son of Sanji Ram Police Officer
 Arvind Dutta
Sub-Inspector

Tilak Raj
Head Constable

Surender Verma
Police Officer
 Complaint
The 5600-word charge sheet filed by a Senior
Superintendent of Jammu, states that on 12 January 2018,
Mohammad Yusuf (Father of Asifa) lodged a complaint in
the Hira Nagar Police.
His complaint said that his daughter, aged 8, had gone to
watch over grazing horses 30 minutes past noon on 10
INCIDENT
January 2018. She was seen at 2 PM, but when the horses
returned at 4 PM, she was no longer with them.
After searching for her and being unable to find her, her
father registered a First Information Report (FIR) with the
police stating that his daughter had gone missing.
  Faced with a challenge to bring to book the culprits behind the Kathua rape-

cum-murder of a minor girl, police reconstructed the scene of the crime to

gather vital clues.

 The body of the eight-year-old nomad Bakherwal community girl was

recovered from Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing
Discovery and arrests
while grazing horses in the forest area.

 Then the body of the victim was found and taken into custody by the police

to allow an autopsy to be conducted. The postmortem was conducted by a

team of doctors at the District Hospital in Kathua at 2:30 PM on the same

day.
On 22 January 2018, the investigation of the case was transferred to

Crime Branch and Crime Headquarters, Jammu and Kashmir. A statement

released by the police listed seven individuals who had been arrested and

charged over the crime, including four police officers. A total of eight

people, including four police officers, were arrested. Two of the police

officers were arrested on suspicion of attempting to destroy evidence and

of accepting money to cover up the incident. One of the accused claimed

to be 15 years old, though a medical examination later suggested he was

19.
  The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police filed two separate
charge sheets against the eight accused persons including a juvenile
held in the case. According to investigators, the girl was held captive
inside a 'Devisthan', gangraped, kept without food and administered
sedatives.

 Her cause of death was asphyxia leading to cardiopulmonary arrest,

the investigations revealed.
Investigation  "In the course of investigation the Special Investigation Team (SIT)
members along with Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) experts and
naib Tehsildar (executive magistrate) again visited the scene of
occurrence and tried to reconstruct the scene of crime," according to
the charge sheet.

 It said minute examination of these locations led to the recovery of

various items including blood-stained wooden sticks and hair strand
which were seized, packed and sealed by the magistrate.
 The sealed packets containing the exhibits were sent to FSL for analysis and report.
Besides, few hair strands recovered from 'Devisthan' and nearby forest where the body
of the girl was dumped by the accused were forwarded to experts in Delhi for DNA
profiling.

 "On the basis of opinion furnished by the experts, one of the hair strands recovered
from the Devisthan matched with the DNA profile of victim which confirmed that she
was kept in captivity at Devisthan which is exclusively manned by the mastermind Sanji
Ram to the exclusion of any other person of the area," the charge sheet read.

 Similarly, the hair strand recovered from the place of recovery of the body matched
with the DNA profile of the juvenile who raped the girl several times after abducting her,
it said.
Accused police officials - Sub Inspector Anand Dutta and Head Constable
Tilak Raj - failed in their efforts to destroy the evidence by washing the clothes
worn by the deceased after receiving Rs 4 lakh from the mastermind, it said.

FSL Delhi with updated technology was able to confirm the presence of blood
stains on the clothes of the victim which matched with her DNA profile, it
further said, adding DNA profiling also established presence of victim's blood
on the vaginal smears.

"As per the report of medical experts, the victim was found prima facie raped
before being killed," the police said.

The crime branch said the investigation also established that the victim was
raped by more than one accused with common intention.

"The medical opinion also established the fact that the victim had been kept
without food and administered sedatives and her cause of death was asphyxia
leading to cardiopulmonary arrest, the charge sheet said.
The post-mortem revealed the presence of clonazepam in the
body of the girl. The examination by the doctors revealed that
the girl had been drugged with a sedative before she was
raped and murdered.
Now the Special Investigative Team of Jammu and Kashmir
Police hit a road-block in the Kathua gang-rape case as the
forensic evidence was not enough to prove charges against
the accused.
But the officials have hit a forensic jackpot.
Role of Forensic Science
The DGP of Jammu and Kashmir Police approached the
Ministry of Home Affairs for assistance from the Delhi
Forensic Lab.
In the month of March, vaginal smear of the deceased eight-
year-old, her clothes which were said to be washed by the
accused, viscera, blood-stained clay and simple clay were
sent to the Delhi Forensic Lab.
Along with samples of the victim, blood samples of the accused
police officers Deepak Khajuria and Shubham Sangra and Parvesh
were also sent to the lab.
In the first week of April, the Delhi Forensic Lab, in its report,
confirmed the presence of blood stains of the accused on the clothes of
the victim and this matched with the DNA profile of the victim.
The Delhi Forensic Lab successfully established the presence of the
blood of the victim on the vaginal smears. The blood stains collected
from the temple matched with blood of the eight-year-old girl, proving
that she was indeed confined and raped inside the temple.
Delhi Forensic Lab report of the hair strand collected from the crime
scene matched with the DNA profile of the accused Shubham Sangra.
The accused allegedly washed the clothes of the victim to destroy
evidence, and when the same clothes were sent to the state forensic
lab, no traces of blood were found on the clothes. This had made it
difficult for the SIT to prove charges against the accused
TRIAL
• First Hearing
The trial for the Kathua murder and rape case began in Jammu and Kashmir on 16
April 2018 before the Principal Sessions Court judge, Kathua.
• Second Hearing
The second hearing was scheduled for 28 April 2018.The Supreme Court sought a
response from the Jammu and Kashmir government regarding shifting the trial
to Chandigarh by 27 April 2018.
• 7th May, 2018
On 7 May 2018, the Supreme Court of India shifted the case from Jammu and
Kashmir to Pathankot. The Supreme Court instructed the trial to be fast-tracked. The
trial was closed to the public and press according to orders from the Supreme Court.
The trial also was being held in-camera as per instructions from the Supreme Court.
• 14th November 2018
On 14 November 2018, the family of the rape victim decided to drop their lawyer
Deepika Rajawat .The application to remove the power of attorney was filed before
the trial court in Pathankot, where the girl’s father said Rajawat won’t be
representing them in the case anymore stating her security concerns and general lack
of interest in the case.
• 10th June 2019
Six of the seven defendants were found guilty, and one was acquitted.
 Prepared by
SOUGATA SAHA.
VERDICT

• Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria and

Parvesh Kumar were sentenced to life
imprisonment, along with a fine of
Rs. 1 lakh.
• Tilak Raj, Anand Dutta and
Surender Verma were sentenced to
five years in jail for destroying
evidence.
•Sanjhi Ram’s nephew, Shubham
Sangra, is facing trial in a juvenile
justice court, while his son Vishal
Jangotra was acquitted due to lack of
evidence.
 Sections –

302- ( Punishment of murder)

376-( Punishment for Rape)

201- (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence)

34- (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common
intention)
SECTIONS 120-B- (Criminal conspiracy) of the Ranbir Penal Code
APPLIED
Jammu and Kashmir State Ranbir Penal Code or RPC was the main
criminal code applicable in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian Penal Code, applicable elsewhere in India, was not applicable
here under Article 370 of the Constitution of India. It came into force in
1932.The code was introduced during the reign of Dogra dynasty with Ranbir
Singh as its ruler and hence named after him.
 THANK YOU.

Prepared by-
SOUGATA SAHA.
.