The main accused in the 8 year old girl's rape and murder case in Kathua told Supreme Court that he was innocent.
Sanji Ram also said that the probe should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, to get to the "real culprits".
The eight-year-old girl, kidnapped by a group to drive out her Bakerwal community in January, was kept sedated and gang-raped repeatedly for days before she was murdered.
In their affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Sanji Ram and his son Vishal repeated the request.
Sanji Ram said he was "like a grand-father" to the victim and had been framed by police officers biased against them. The affidavit said he not only wanted justice for the victim but "fair treatment" for the accused as well.
He also opposed the petition to transfer the trial against the eight accused to Chandigarh.
He insisted that there was no real reason to transfer the trial as there was no threat to the victim's family. Sanji Ram also insisted that Deepika Singh Rajawat, who had approached the Supreme Court, was not a lawyer in the trial court and the security given to her should be removed.
"I don't know how long I will be alive. I can be raped...My modesty can be outraged. I can be killed, I can be damaged. I was threatened yesterday that 'we will not forgive you'. I am going to tell the Supreme Court tomorrow that I am in danger," Ms Rajawat said last month before the victim's father asked the top court to transfer the trial to Kathua.
-PTC News
