<p class="title">The Supreme Court today directed the Jammu and Kashmir government to file its response on a plea alleging custodial torture of the Kathua case witness by August 27.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud fixed the matter for further hearing in August 29.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The top court was hearing a plea by Talib Hussain, a key witness in the Kathua gang rape-and-murder case, alleging custodial torture by the state police in an alleged rape case lodged against him by his sister-in-law.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The court had earlier asked the lawyer, appearing for Hussain's cousin Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, to satisfy it on how a writ of habeas corpus (produce the body) was maintainable in the present case where the accused was in lawful police custody following an FIR being registered against him.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The counsel had referred to a Supreme Court judgement and said irrespective of the nature of detention, whether legal or illegal, such a petition could always be filed in cases of custodial torture.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The petition was opposed by the lawyer, appearing for Hussain's sister-in-law who has filed the FIR alleging rape, that there were as many as 10 FIRs against the accused and no relief should be granted without hearing the victim.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The plea seeks protection of Hussain in police custody and alleges that he had been brutally beaten up in the alleged fake rape case.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Hussain is a key witness in the Kathua case, in which an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community was abducted in January and gang-raped before being killed.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The state police's Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven people and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The charge sheet has revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.</p>
<p class="title">The Supreme Court today directed the Jammu and Kashmir government to file its response on a plea alleging custodial torture of the Kathua case witness by August 27.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud fixed the matter for further hearing in August 29.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The top court was hearing a plea by Talib Hussain, a key witness in the Kathua gang rape-and-murder case, alleging custodial torture by the state police in an alleged rape case lodged against him by his sister-in-law.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The court had earlier asked the lawyer, appearing for Hussain's cousin Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, to satisfy it on how a writ of habeas corpus (produce the body) was maintainable in the present case where the accused was in lawful police custody following an FIR being registered against him.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The counsel had referred to a Supreme Court judgement and said irrespective of the nature of detention, whether legal or illegal, such a petition could always be filed in cases of custodial torture.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The petition was opposed by the lawyer, appearing for Hussain's sister-in-law who has filed the FIR alleging rape, that there were as many as 10 FIRs against the accused and no relief should be granted without hearing the victim.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The plea seeks protection of Hussain in police custody and alleges that he had been brutally beaten up in the alleged fake rape case.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Hussain is a key witness in the Kathua case, in which an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community was abducted in January and gang-raped before being killed.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The state police's Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed the main charge sheet against seven people and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The charge sheet has revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped inside a place of worship before being killed.</p>