NEW DELHI: Sanji Ram, prime accused in the Kathua gangrape case on Friday claimed innocence and told the Supreme Court that he was “like a grand-father” to the eight-year-old victim.
According to NDTV reports, Sanji Ram, in an affidavit filed in the top court, said he was “like a grand-father” to the victim and had been framed by police officers biased against them and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the case to find the “real culprits.”
In the affidavit, Sanji Ram and his son Vishal repeated the request. They not only demanded justice for the eight-year-old Kathua victim but also “fair treatment” for the accused.
Deepika Singh Rajawat has been representing the family of the eight-year-old girl from Bakerwal community whose body was recovered from Rassana forest in Kathua on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.
She was reportedly held captive inside a temple managed by Sanji Ram and sedated and gang-raped repeatedly for days before being raped again, strangulated and also bludgeoned to death.
The brutality of the crime hit the country and triggered widespread outrage.