Jammu, Nov 15: The family of the eight-year-old Kathua rape and murder victim has decided to drop their lawyer Deepika Rajawat as she has barely been available at the court hearings, the victim’s father has said.
Those close to the family said he has moved an application in the Pathankot court in Punjab, where the case was earlier shifted. It said that Rajawat shall not represent them and the power of attorney was being withdrawn.
The father told reporters on Wednesday here that so far the case has been heard 100 times by the court and around 100 witnesses have been examined during the trial, but Rajawat had only appeared twice for the family.
In response to it, Advocate Rajawat said that some “new faces are trying to earn out of it by disassociating her from the case”.
Talking to Kashmir News Service, she said that it is for the first time in her entire career that a client has filed an application to drop her in their case.
“I am thankful to everyone for either extending their support or hurling abuses on me for taking up the case but I firmly believe that intend behind filing an application to disassociate me from the case clearly vindicates that some new faces are ready to get advantage of it,” she said.
Stating that she has talked to the victim’s family but they are quite willing to drop her from the case, Rajawat admitted that she couldn’t appear in the trial many times, saying that she has to deal with number of cases at Jammu too, she has to appear before the court in favour of her other clients as well.
“It is not possible for me to go to Pathankot every day. It is an admitted fact that I couldn’t appear in trail several times but is it possible to attend the trail every day? Shall I not suffer financially? I have to see many things including other cases at Jammu,” she said, adding that at a time when senior lawyers are already pleading the case in a well manner then what is the need of her appearance in the trial.
She said that if the family has decided to drop her from the case, then let them go with their decision. “I am not answerable to anyone except myself,” she said, adding that the case was shifted to Pathankot because of her efforts and the case is going well due to her efforts. “I have fought for them and I have done whatever was possible for me,” she said.
Referring to a query about the case, she said, “The case is in safe hands.”
Rajawat, who hogged newspaper headlines when she spearheaded the cause of the nomadic family, told the media that she was receiving death threats ever since she became associated with the case.
The victim was raped and subsequently murdered in Rasana village of Kathua district in Jammu and Kashmir in January.
Eight people, including Sanji Ram, the alleged mastermind of the crime, have been arrested.
The Supreme Court transferred the hearing of the case to a Pathankot court that has been holding the trial on a day-to-day basis.
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