The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to suspend the life sentence of Sanji Ram, the former temple caretaker convicted in the 2018 Kathua rape and murder case, saying he does not deserve the “concession of suspension of sentence at this stage”.

A bench of Justices Gurvinder Singh Gill and Ramesh Kumari dismissed Ram’s plea on March 6. The order, running three pages, was made public earlier this week.

Ram was convicted by a Pathankot sessions court in 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment. His nephew Parvesh Kumar and special police officer Deepak Khajuria were also given life terms.

“Without commenting on the merits of the case,” the high court said it was of the opinion “that it is not a case where the applicant/appellant deserves the concession of suspension of sentence at this stage”.

“The application, as such, is dismissed,” it added. The court, however, directed that Ram’s main appeal be listed for final hearing in September, noting that he has already spent a substantial period in custody.

The case goes back to January 2018, when an eight-year-old nomadic girl was abducted in Kathua.

According to the chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir crime branch in April that year, she was kept inside a village temple, sedated for days, raped and then killed.

Arguing for suspension of sentence, senior advocate Vinod Ghai said the prosecution had examined 114 witnesses but failed to produce concrete evidence linking Ram to the crime. He also pointed out that Ram has been in custody for over eight years.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate R. S. Cheema opposed the plea, referring to the findings of the trial court and the evidence on record.

“It has been submitted that since upon findings of guilt having been recorded by the trial court, the presumption of innocence of the applicant is no longer available to him, the applicant does not deserve to be released on bail,” he said.

The trial court had also sentenced three policemen to five years in jail for their role in a cover-up and destruction of evidence. Ram’s son Vishal was acquitted.

In his 2019 judgment, sessions judge Tejwinder Singh wrote: “In the present case, facts are many but truth is one that under a criminal conspiracy, an innocent eight-year-old minor girl has been kidnapped, wrongfully confined, drugged, raped and ultimately murdered. The perpetrators of this crime have acted in such a manner as if there is a 'law of jungle' prevalent in the society.”

He added a couplet by Mirza Ghalib: “Pinha tha daam-e-sakht qareeb ashiyaan ke, udhne hi nahi paye the ki girftar hum hue”. The court had described the crime as “devilish and monstrous”, carried out in a “shameful, inhumane and barbaric manner”.

The case had sparked nationwide outrage in 2018. After initial delays, the investigation was handed over to the crime branch. The Supreme Court later shifted the trial out of Jammu and Kashmir to Pathankot and ordered day-to-day hearings.