UPDATE - 3 get life sentence in India for rape of Muslim girl

UPDATE - 3 get life sentence in India for rape of Muslim girl

Rape and murder of minor girl in Jammu and Kashmir last year tiggered mass protests

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By Ahmad Adil

CHANDIGARH, India (AA) - A court in India on Monday convicted six out of seven accused involved in the rape and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir last year.

"Six of the accused have been convicted. One of the accused has been acquitted," said one of the lawyers while briefing the media at Pathankot court in the northeastern province of Punjab.

Three of the key accused were sentenced to life. Three others, all policemen, were sentenced to five years in jail for destruction of evidence, local news agency Press Trust of India reported.

There were eight people accused in the case, including a minor. A juvenile court will decide about the minor.

The chilling details of the rape and murder case shook the region last year. The victim girl from a nomadic Muslim herder family in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua region was kidnapped last January and a week later, her mutilated body was found.

Police said the girl was sedated, starved and gang-raped inside a temple by a group of people which included police officers.

The incident triggered widespread protests first in Kashmir and then across India, after there were rallies in support of the accused who belonged to another community. Two ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defended the accused and were forced to resign after massive outrage.

As the case became increasingly politicized, it was shifted from Jammu and Kashmir to the court in Pathankot where an in-camera trial was held.

The convicts are identified as Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria, Surinder Kumar, Parvesh Kumar, Tilak Raj and Anand Dutta. Ram's son Vishal has been acquitted.

Political parties in the region have welcomed the court verdict.

Following the ruling, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Amen to that. The guilty deserve the most severe punishment possible under law. And to those politicians who defended the accused, vilified the victim & threatened the legal system no words of condemnation are enough.”

“Welcome the judgement. High time we stop playing politics over a heinous crime where an 8-year-old child was drugged, raped repeatedly & then bludgeoned to death. Hope loopholes in our judicial system are not exploited & culprits get exemplary punishment,” former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said.

“We welcome the High Court's judgement in the Kathua rape & murder case & hope that in this Asifa's family can find justice,” India's main opposition Congress Party tweeted from its official account.

However, parents of the victim told Anadolu Agency that they were expecting capital punishment to the accused.

“We were expecting death sentence to the accused…authorities should also look into how one was acquitted in the case. He [the one who was acquitted] was the main accused in the case,” the victim’s father who asked not to be named told Anadolu Agency over phone after the court verdict.

National Commission for Women chairwoman Rekha Sharma said she too was expecting capital punishment. "The Jammu and Kashmir government must go for appeal in higher court," she said, according to Press Trust of India.

India awards the death penalty in rare cases.

* Zahid Rafiq in Srinagar contributed to this story.

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