Kathua case: Pathankot judge praises Zee News' evidence, hails channel for bringing out actual truth

The videos aired by Zee News clearly showed that the charge-sheet was erroneous, and Vishal was indeed in Muzaffarnagar.

The citation read: "The court is of the considered view that the evidence in detail as discussed above, broadly supports the news clip of Zee News relating to presence of Vishal Jangotra @Shamma at Meeranpur, Muzaffarnagar during the period of occurrence and as is the present case Raju Kerni, Bureau Chief Zee News, Jammu (DW-15) has certified that the CD and pen drive to be genuine one as per actual occurrence and without modification, therefore the same can certainly be relied upon for reaching a just decision. The genuine efforts made by Zee News, particularly Editor-in-chief of Zee News and staff needs to be appreciation as they have tried their level best to bring the actual truth on surface.”

The prosecution had sought capital punishment for them. 

The three have been sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs one lakh each after being convicted for criminal conspiracy and murder, the prosecution lawyer said.

Life imprisonment will mean they will be in jail till the end of their natural life, he said.

They have also been handed over different jail terms for various offences under the RPC which will run concurrently with life term, he said. 

Each of their three accomplices -- Sub Inspector Anand Dutta, Head Constable Tilak Raj and special police officer Surender Verma -- have been convicted for destruction of evidence to cover up and handed down five years in jail and Rs 50,000 fine each, he said.

If they do not deposit the fine, they will have to serve additional six months in jail, he said. 

The court pronounced the much-awaited verdict away from the gaze of media which gathered outside the premises.

The prosecution team, comprising lawyers J K Chopra, S S Basra, Harminder Singh and Bhupinder Singh, said it demanded capital punishment for the main accused and may go in for appeal against the sole acquittal.

"We have sought capital punishment against all three accused convicted of murder and gang rape. It was hard work of all of us and a perfect blend of investigation and legal brains. We have achieve 99 per cent result," the statement said.

The crime branch of J&K Police had filed the chargesheet against eight persons, including a juvenile. 

The trial against the juvenile is yet to begin as his petition on determining his age is to be heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

According to the 15-page chargesheet filed in April last year, the girl was kidnapped on January 10 that year and was 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.