New Delhi,
The Supreme Court on Monday transferred the Kathua gang-rape and murder case to a sessions court in Pathankot, Punjab, and ordered protection for witnesses, the accused, the victims’ family and their lawyers, and the lone juvenile accused in the case.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India ordered a day-to-day trial without any adjournments to fast-track it. Examination-in-chief and cross-examination of witnesses have to be done without any break, it said.

It ordered an in-camera trial where only the accused, witnesses and lawyers concerned shall remain present.

The Bench made it clear that only the Supreme Court will hear cases relating to the Kathua gang rape case.

It passed the order after a 90-minute hearing during which senior counsel Gopal Subramanium and Jammu and Kashmir Advocate General Jehangir Iqbal Ganai for the state, senior counsel Indira Jaising for the victim’s biological father, senior counsel Meenakshi Arora and Geeta Luthra addressed it on various aspects of the case. Subramanium told the Bench that the Crime Branch would soon file an additional chargesheet.

The Bench also comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra chose to keep the issue of a CBI probe open and posted petitions on the issue for further hearing on July 9.

It gave liberty to the J&K Government to appoint public prosecutors to conduct trial. The proceedings have to be conducted in accordance with the Ranbir Penal Code applicable to J&K, the Bench said.

The victim an eight-year-old girl from a nomadic community had disappeared from near her home in a village in Kathua on January 10. Her body was found in the same locality a week later. The Crime Branch of J&K Police had taken up the probe on January 22 and filed a chargesheet against seven accused and a separate chargesheet against a juvenile accused on April 9.

The minor girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed, the police had alleged.

The court directed the Kathua sessions court to send all the relevant case files and documents to the court in Pathankot.

The statements recorded by the police in Urdu have to be translated into English and Hindi for the Pathankot Sessions Judge and accused, the Bench ordered.

Food for the witnesses and the accused has to be arranged by the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the top court said.

Faced with demands from the victim’s family and the accused for shifting of trial and investigation, respectively, the Supreme Court had on April 27 stayed the trial in the Kathua gang-rape and murder case till May 7.