Once again the hall of shame for the nation has appeared in the news regarding the Kathua rape case, in which an eight-year nomad bakarwal girl named Asifa Bano was raped, sedated and eventually murdered at a village in Rasana area of Kathua, Jammu in 2018. The final hearing of the case will be held on the 14th of September this year.
The case triggered major outcry with nationwide demonstrations which finally culminated in many investigations, court hearings, protests and arrests and was widely covered and criticized by the media.
There were seven accused who were arrested in 2018 in this case but later one of the convict was acquitted from the charges, Sanji Ram a local resident of Rasana village and a revenue officer was considered the main master-mind of the case alongwith his nephew and one of his friends was also convicted and SPO Deepak Khujaria, Parvesh Kumar a civilian were accomplices who assisted equally in this horrific crime. The convicts were also punished with heavy penalities and life imprisonment later.
Since 2018, the case has been in media owing to its sensitivity and after three years of numerous investigations, trials, dissent, protests, court pleas by the victim’s family even the court pleas of the accused, the case is coming to its culmination with final hearing in September.
Aman Zutshi
