Eight accused of gang raping, murdering Kashmiri girl plead not guilty

Eight men accused of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl pleaded not guilty on Monday to the horrific crime that has sparked revulsion and brought thousands to India's streets in protest.

Four policemen and a Hindu temple custodian are among those accused of gang raping and killing a Muslim girl from a poor tribe in Jammu and Kashmir state where the highly-charged case has stoked long-simmering religious tensions.

The accused men appeared in court in the city of Kathua on Monday for the first time since being arrested in February for the girl's murder.

Ankur Sharma, a lawyer for the accused, said the men had pleaded not guilty were willing to take a lie-detector test. The court adjourned the case for procedural reasons, he added.

"The court has directed that charge sheet copies should be provided to all the accused. The next date of hearing is April 28," Sharma told reporters.

TRT World earlier spoke to journalist Ishan Russel in New Delhi.

Widespread protests

Disgust over the horrific crime led to protests in cities across India over the past few days, with anger fuelled by support for the accused initially shown by ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The protests have also focused on another rape incident allegedly involving a BJP lawmaker in the crime-ridden, most populous, poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The national outrage has drawn parallels with the massive protests that followed the gang rape and murder of a girl on a Delhi bus in 2012, which forced the then Congress-led government to enact tough new rape laws including the death penalty.

Yet India has long been plagued by violence against women and children – reported rapes climbed 60 percent from 2012 to 40,000 in 2016, and many more go unreported, especially in backward rural areas.

More rallies demanding action against rapists and violence against women were expected on Monday in the capital and Ahmedabad, the state capital of Modi's home state of Gujarat.

The girl from a nomadic community that roams the forests of Kashmir was drugged, held captive in a temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and battered with a stone in January, the police said.

Against the nomads

According to the charge sheet the kidnapping, rape and killing of the girl was part of a plan to drive the nomads out of Kathua district in Jammu, the mostly Hindu portion of India's only Muslim- majority state.

The alleged ringleader, retired bureaucrat Sanji Ram, looked after a small Hindu temple where the girl had been held captive and assaulted. Two of the eight on trial were police officers who are accused of being bribed to stifle the investigation.

Ahead of the trial, the lawyer representing the family of the victim said she had been threatened with rape and death for taking up her case, and requested for the trial to be held outside Jammu and Kashmir.

"I was threatened yesterday that ‘we will not forgive you’. I am going to tell Supreme Court that I am in danger,” said lawyer Deepika Singh Rawat who has fought for a proper investigation since the girl's body was found in January.

It was only when the charge sheet was finally filed last week, giving details of the horrendous crime, that Indians reacted en masse.

Ministers resigned

Two ministers from the BJP, which shares power in Jammu and Kashmir, were forced to resign after being pilloried for joining a rally in support of the accused men.

The national outrage over the Kathua case has drawn parallels with the massive protests that followed the gang rape and murder of a girl on a Delhi bus in 2012, which forced the-then Congress-led government to enact tough new rape laws, including the death penalty.

But activists say crimes of violence against women are often inadequately investigated, and in some cases accused with political connections have been protected.

More incidents of child rape, including one in Surat in Gujurat, were reported over the weekend.

On Friday, Modi assured the country that the guilty would not be shielded, but he has been criticised for failing to speak out sooner.

Before leaving for an official visit to Europe this week, Modi received a letter from 50 former civil servants upbraiding the country's political leadership over its weak response.

"The bestiality and the barbarity involved in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old child shows the depths of depravity that we have sunk into," the letter said.

"In post-Independence India, this is our darkest hour and we find the response of our government, the leaders of our political parties inadequate and feeble."