The district and sessions court in the city of Pathankot in Punjab has ordered that the details of trial proceedings in the Kathua case must not be uploaded on the Internet from Friday, Hindustan Times reported.
The judge, Dr Tejwinder Singh, passed the ruling on Wednesday after accepting the plea of the defence counsels, who told the court that the Supreme Court had ordered an in-camera trial so that the witnesses feel protected and the accused feel safe, The Tribune reported.
The public and the media are not allowed to attend in-camera trial proceedings, which are ordered in sensitive cases to protect the privacy of the parties involved.
The defence counsels concluded their arguments on Wednesday. Special public prosecutors Santokh Singh Basra and JK Chopra had finished their arguments a few days ago.
The accused are on trial for murdering an eight-year-old girl after allegedly raping her in January. The alleged incident took place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district. The police said in the chargesheet that the girl had been kidnapped, drugged, gang-raped before being killed. The case sparked nationwide protests after two Bharatiya Janata Party ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir government attended a rally organised in support of one of the accused. They subsequently resigned.
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