The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Shubham Sangra, one of the accused in a case related to rape and murder of a minor girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, will be tried as an adult and not a juvenile. The apex court said that medical opinion should be considered to determine the age range of the accused in the case.
“Medical opinion regarding age in absence of any other conclusive evidence should be considered to determine the age range of the accused…Whether medical evidence can be relied upon or not depends on the value of evidence,” a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and J B Pardiwala said. It set aside the orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Kathua and the high court which had held that the accused Shubam Sangra was a juvenile and hence to be tried separately.
“We set aside the judgements of the CJM Kathua and the high court and hold that the accused was not a juvenile at the time of commission of offence ,” Justice Pardiwala said while pronouncing the verdict.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had earlier moved the apex court challenging the High Court and Chief Judicial Magistrate court’s ruling that the accused be tried as a juvenile.
In January 2018, an eight-year-old girl belonging to a nomadic community was allegedly abducted, gangraped and murdered by six persons.
A special court, in June 2019, had sentenced three men to life imprisonment in the case and sentenced three police officers to five-year imprisonment for causing destruction of evidence.
However, the trial against Sangra was shifted to the Juvenile Justice Board.