Jammu/Kathua,
A day after the court rejected his bail application, no lawyer came forward to defend the juvenile arrested in the Kathua rape-murder case on his first hearing in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua, on Wednesday.

The juvenile was brought to court amid tight security and produced before AS Langeh, CJM. Since the juvenile came without a defence lawyer, the court fixed May 7 as the next date of hearing in the case.

“As soon as the juvenile was produced before the court, the CJM asked where his lawyer was, to which he did not respond,” said an advocate.

On Tuesday, the court had rejected the bail application filed by the juvenile, saying “the bail application has no merit at this stage”.

While hearing the defence lawyer and public prosecutors, the court had observed, “Courts must be sensitive in dealing with a juvenile who is involved in heinous cases like rape, gangrape and murder. The criminal act attributed to the petitioner herein, by all conceivable standards, seems to be prima facie a grave and heinous criminal activity and not a juvenile offence.”

On April 19, the Supreme Court had pulled up Kathua lawyers for obstructing the filing of the chargesheet in the Kathua rape and murder case and directed the Bar Council of India (BCI) to submit a report on the conduct of the lawyers within three days. Thereafter, a fact-finding team of the BCI had met members of the Jammu and Kathua Bar Associations “to look into the overall conduct of lawyers and find out the truth”.

The Crime Branch had filed two chargesheets one against the seven accused, including alleged key conspirator and policemen, before the Kathua CJM on April 9, and another against the juvenile on April 10 despite protests by local lawyers, who demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI. The accused pleaded not guilty on the opening day of the trial in the principal district and sessions court on April 16. The court posted the next hearing in the case for April 28.