All you need to know about Kathua rape-murder trial

The Pathankot district and session court will pronounce its order in the case pertaining to the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua on June 10.

Pathankot (Punjab): The verdict in the rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua will be delivered by a special court in Punjab's Pathankot on Monday. The case - involving the kidnapping, rape, and murder of the victim last January - had shaken the country to the core.

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 situation will be monitored closely, they said.

All you need to to know about the trial:

• The in-camera trial in the case ended on June 3, when district and sessions judge Tejwinder Singh had announced that the verdict was likely to be delivered on June 10.
• Charges of rape and murder were framed against seven of the eight accused in the case, with one of them pleading that he is a juvenile.
• The accused, if convicted, would face a minimum sentence of life imprisonment and a maximum of death penalty.
• According to the 15-page charge sheet, the eight-year-old girl, who was kidnapped on January 10 last year, was allegedly raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district after having been kept sedated for four days before she was bludgeoned to death.
• The victim's body was found mutilated in a forested area on January 17. Three days later, one of the accused - reportedly a juvenile - was arrested by police. The trial in his case is yet to begin because a petition on determining his age is yet to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
• The case was subsequently handed over to the Crime Branch, following which village head Sanji Ram, his son Vishal, juvenile nephew and his friend Anand Dutta, and two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma were arrested. Head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Sanji Ram and destroyed crucial evidence, were also arrested.
• Investigations conducted by the Crime Branch suggested that the girl was raped and murdered allegedly by the accused in an effort to strike fear among nomads frequenting the Kathua area and drive them out.
• The court framed charges under the Ranbir Penal Code(RPC), including Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 376-D (gang-rape), according to the prosecution. The accused, if convicted, face minimum life imprisonment and the maximum death penalty.
• The court also framed charges of destruction of evidence and causing hurt by poisoning under Section 328 of the RPC. The two policemen - Raj and Datta - were also charged under Section 161 (public servant taking illegal gratification) of the RPC.
• All the accused, barring the juvenile, were shifted to Gurdaspur jail following an intervention by the Supreme Court which also restricted the appearance of the defense lawyers and limited it to one or maximum of two per accused.
• The Supreme Court ordered that the trial be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir after lawyers at the Kathua court prevented the Crime Branch from filing charges amid high drama on April 9.
• The prosecution team in the case comprise JK Chopra, SS Basra, and Harminder Singh.
• Late last year, the family of the Kathua victim dropped their lawyer - Deepika Rajawat - accusing her of not making herself available for court hearings. Ms. Rajawat, for her part, said she had been receiving death threats ever since she took up the case.
• The case also proved to be a bone of contention between the Bharatiya Janta Party -Peoples Democratic Party alliance in the state, after two ministers from the saffron party - Chowdhury Lal Singh and Prakash Ganga - took part in a rally that was organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch, a right-wing group, in support of the accused arrested by the Crime Branch