Srinagar, June 10 (TIWN) The verdict of a Special Court in Pathankot on the rape and murder of a eight-year-old girl last year in Kathua convicting six of the seven accused on Monday was received with relief and satisfaction in the Kashmir Valley.

The 15-page charge sheet against the accused alsosaid that the eight-year-old was raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district after having been sedated for four days before she was bludgeoned to death. She was drugged, starved and repeatedly raped for days. She was finally strangled and her head was bashed in with a rock. Her mutilated body was found in a forest area on January 17. Three days later, one of the accused -- reportedly a juvenile -- was arrested by police, the charge sheet said. An ugly dimension was added to the demand for exemplary punishment for the guilty when two BJP leaders, Choudhary Lal Singh and Chandar Prakash Ganga, who were ministers at that time in the ruling PDP-BJP coalition, stood up in support of the accused trying to polarise the Hindu dominated Jammu region and the Muslim dominated Valley. Subsequently, these two BJP ministers were dropped from the Council of Ministers headed by the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. It was because of the sentiments stoked by supporters of the accused that the prosecution was prevented from presenting the charge sheet against the accused in the Kathua court. The Supreme Court then ordered that the trial of the case be shifted to Pathankot and directed the trial court to hear the case in camera on a daily basis.