Six people out of eight accused, which includes one minor, have been convicted in the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old child in Kathua. A district and sessions court in Pathankot delivered its verdict today.

The six convicted are Sanji Ram, two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, head constable Tilak Raj, a civilian Parvesh Kumar, and sub-inspector Anand Dutta. The seventh accused, Sanji Ram’s son Vishal was acquitted.

The eighth accused is a juvenile, whose petition on determining his age is yet to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

The eight-year-old from a minority nomadic community went missing on January 10, 2018, from Rasana village in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, she had taken the horses out. Seven days later, on January 17, her badly bruised and swollen body with bite marks on her face was found near the spot the family had passed several times while searching for her. The chargesheet gave a shocking account of the rape and murder being a premeditated act to scare away the nomadic community from the village and forests around the village.

In May 2018, the Supreme Court shifted the trial to Pathankot after ordering that the case be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir owing to massive protests. The trial began on May 31, 2018. The in-camera trial ended on June 3, with the hearing lasting 275 days with over 125 witnesses.