'Why the hell is he sweating on chilly January morning': How cops nailed Sanji Ram in Kathua case

Days after the verdict in rape and murder of the eight-year-old nomadic girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua, a top cop has revealed that how exactly he nailed village head Sanji Ram. Role of the Sarpanch, the prime convict in the case, was exposed by chief investigator RK Jalla. According to a PTI report, Jalla was among those who couldn’t believe what Sanji Ram was saying. “After having investigated the crime scene, we went to meet Sanji Ram (one of the main accused in the case). As I and my team started enquiring about his family members including his arrested juvenile nephew, I asked about his son Vishal.

“Sanji Ram immediately conveyed to me in a boastful voice that his son was studying in Meerut and I can go and check from his CDR (Call Data Record). I started wondering about two things -- why is he insisting that I should go and check Vishal’s call records and second, why the hell is he sweating on a chilly morning of January,” the 60-year-old now retired cop was quoted as saying by PTI.

On Monday, three of the six convicts, including main accused Sanji Ram, Parvesh Kumar and Deepak Khajuria, were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in Pathankot on Monday. They have been sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh each for murder along with 25 years in jail for gangrape, they said.

Sanji Ram, the caretaker of the temple where the crime took place, Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar, a civilian, were convicted under Ranbir Penal Code sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, murder, gangrape and destruction of evidence, the lawyers said.

According to the 15-page chargesheet filed in April last year, the girl was kidnapped on January 10 that year and was allegedly raped in captivity in a small village temple, exclusively manned by Ram, after having been kept sedated for four days. She was later bludgeoned to death.  

(With agency inputs)