The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea that alleges Talib Hussain, a key witness in the Kathua gangrape and murder case, is being tortured by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in a fake rape case. The plea will be heard in the apex court on Wednesday.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Indira Banerjee considered the submission of a close relative of Hussain, seeking urgent hearing on the plea, according to a PTI report.
The cousin of the witness had filed a habeas corpus (produce the body) writ petition alleging that Hussain has been kept in illegal detention and being subjected to custodial torture.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, counsel for the petitioner, later said Hussain had been subjected to torture in Sambha in the state and that they were seeking “judicial intervention” in the matter.
Hussain’s family alleged that he was being tortured in police custody in a fake rape case. As per the allegations, Hussain has been brutally assaulted inside the Samba police station where he is in police remand on charges of an alleged fake rape case and possession of weapons.
The apex court has transferred the trial in the Kathua gang rape and murder case to Pathankot after taking note of the plea of the father of the victim apprehending threat to the family.
An eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community disappeared from near her home in a village close to Kathua in the Jammu region on January 10 and her body was found in the same area a week later.
The state police’s Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven persons and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district. The charge sheet has revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.
(With PTI inputs)