50 Defence Counsels, Undercurrent of Politics and Little Time: The Challenges Faced by Kathua Rape Victim's Lawyer

Pathankot: Advocate Mubeen Farooqui Khan took up the rape and murder case of the eight-year-old Kathua girl after her family sacked Deepika Singh Rajawat alleging that in over hundred hearings of the court she had only appeared for two.

Not only did he come into the case very late, but Khan was also working against a battery of defence counsels.

On Monday the special court in Pathankot ruled in his favour and ordered the three main accused to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The other three accused were sentenced to five years in rigorous imprisonment.

In this exclusive interview with News18, Khan talked about the challenges that he had to face during the trial and the road ahead for the victim's family.

Are you satisfied with the convictions and the punishment given to the accused?

We were demanding capital punishment for the accused and I still believe that the culprits should be sent to the gallows. Now, we will challenge the verdict in the High court and seek a death penalty for them.

What were the challenges that you faced in this case?

There were over 50 defence lawyers arguing against us and the case itself was not an easy one with it being politicised and pressure being mounted from different sides. This was a high-profile case where a lot of people worked overtime to disrupt facts. That is all I can say for now. But I was committed to fighting for justice.

And eventually, we saw to it that the accused were convicted.

While we were fighting the case, we did not face any problem as such. But, the fake news and rumours that were circulated time and again created a lot of problems for us outside the court.

The defence counsels seemed confident on Monday morning that the evidence was not strong enough to secure convictions of the accused. How confident were you?

When I came to court today I was confident that justice will be served.

I believed we had sufficient evidence to ensure the convictions and we were proven correct. I also appreciate the manner in which the investigations were conducted. However, it was not easy to prove several aspects of the court given how crucial evidence was tampered with.