The eight-year-old girl allegedly gangraped by six men who had held her in captivity in a small temple village in Kathua district for a week in January, was kept sedated so that she could be sexually assaulted once again before she was bludgeoned to death, reveals the chargesheet in the case accessed by PTI.
The abduction, rape and killing of the Bakherwal girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area, reveals the 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Jammu on 9 April.
It lists the caretaker of the Devasthan, a small temple in Rassana village in Kathua about 90 km from Jammu, as the main conspirator behind the abduction, rape and killing.
Sanji Ram was allegedly joined by special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, Ram’s juvenile nephew, and his son Vishal Jangotra alias Shamma, reported PTI.
According to PTI, the chargesheet also names investigating officers – Head Constable Tilak Raj and Sub-Inspector Anand Dutta – who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.
A separate chargesheet was filed on Tuesday, 10 April, on the role of the juvenile, who cannot be publicly named according to law.
All eight are under arrest.
Lawyers in Jammu on Wednesday, 11 April, went on strike in support of the accused.
A Well-Planned Monstrosity
On 11 January, six days before the child’s body was recovered from the Rassana forest, the juvenile phoned his cousin Jangotra and asked him to return from Meerut, where he was studying, if he wanted to “satisfy his lust” the chargesheet stated.
The document lays bare the larger conspiracy to instill fear in the Bakerwal community and explains in excruciating detail how it was carried out.
The eight-year-old had gone missing on 10 January while grazing horses in the forest. Investigators said the accused abducted the girl under the pretext of helping her find her horses.
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