Kathua rape case: Juvenile' accused to be tried as adult

Pathankot, July 5: An accused in Kathua rape-and-murder, who had claimed to be a juvenile will now be tried as adult, the Pathankot court hearing the case ruled on Thursday.

District and Sessions judge Tajwinder Singh accepted a medical report which ascertained that the age of accused, Parvesh Kumar alias 'Mannu', is more than 20 years old.

The accused, one of the eight persons charged for rape, had claimed to be a juvenile and is a nephew of the alleged mastermind Sanji Ram.

Rejecting the plea of defence counsel, district and sessions judge Tajwinder Singh said the accused, Parvesh Kumar alias 'Mannu', will be treated as an adult, the lawyer said.

Chopra said the court has declined his application and declared the accused as a 'major'. Kumar's counsel A K Sawhney told reporters outside the court that they would be challenging the verdict of the trail court in the Supreme Court soon.

The medical report was submitted before the court earlier this week by the Jammu and Kashmir police's crime branch after it resumed post-summer break.

The district and sessions judge had issued directions to the crime branch to conduct a bone ossification test to ascertain the age of Kumar, one of the eight accused in the brutal rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir in January.

The little girl, belonging from a minority nomadic community, had disappeared from near her home in a village near Kathua in Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.