The Supreme Court on Monday took note of a plea of the victim’s father seeking transfer of the trial of the Kathua rape and murder case preferably to Chandigarh, and sought response of the state government.

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The top court asked the state government to reply by April 27 on whether a plea to transfer the Kathua rape and murder case from the state’s courts to Chandigarh should be allowed.

According to the media reports, the victim’s father expressed satisfaction with the J-K POlice probe so far, and opposed the plea for CBI investigation demanded by others during the hearing.

Also Read: Kathua case hearing on April 28 as accused fail to get charge sheet copies

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked the state police to provide adequate security at the observation home where a juvenile accused has been kept and fixed the next date of hearing to April 27.

The top court also directed the Jammu and Kashmir government to provide security to the family of the eight-year-old Kathua gangrape and murder victim, the lawyer and a family friend, assisting them in pursuing the case.

The bench said those policemen providing security to the victim’s family and others will be in plain clothes.

Meanwhile, Kathua Sessions Judge Sanjeev Gupta, earlier on Monday, postponed the case’s hearing to 28 April as the crime branch of the J-K Police had so far not provided the copy of the charge sheet to the accused persons.

The beginning of trial of the infamous case was fixed for Monday, but except postponing it to the next date no other proceedings took place as the crime branch did not provide copy of the 490-page charge sheet to the accused although the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had demanded fast-track trial of the case.

Eight persons named as accused in the charge sheet told the Sessions Judge that they have not been provided copies of the charge sheet that was mandatory before filing it in the court, said Aseem Sawhney who is representing the police head constable Tilak Raj. He said that intentions of the prosecuting agency have been exposed as copies of the charge sheet were not provided to the accused so far.

It was perhaps for the first time that the accused in the case also urged the court for their narco test so that truth could come out, said their lawyer Ankur Sharma.

The court directed the prosecution to provide copies of the charge sheet to the eight accused, who allegedly held an eight-year-old girl in captivity in the village temple at Rasana for a week in January during which she was kept “sedated and sexually assaulted” before being beaten to death.

(With agency inputs)