New Delhi, April 27, 2023 (PPI-OT): The Indian Supreme Court has ordered further trial of Shubham Sangra, involved in the sensational gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in 2018, by the Court of Principal District and Sessions Judge, Pathankot, Punjab. In January 2018, a minor Muslim girl from Kathua, Aasifa Bano, was kidnapped and gang-raped after being kept sedated for four days in a small village Hindu temple. A special court on June 10, 2019 sentenced three persons to life imprisonment in the case, while three others were handed down five years in jail and Rs 50,000 fine each.

On November 16 last year, Sangra was declared an adult by the Supreme Court after being initially treated as a juvenile. A bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Bela M. Trivedi ordered that further trial of the case be tried by the Court of Principal District and Sessions Judge, Pathankot, Punjab. The top court on November 16 last year had held Shubham was not a juvenile and ordered that he be tried afresh as an adult for the offences.

The Apex court had also held that medical opinion regarding the age of an accused cannot be brushed aside in the absence of statutory proof on the same issue. It had set aside the orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Kathua and the High Court which had held that the culprit Sangra was a juvenile and hence to be tried separately.

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