The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider on May 16 a plea by three witnesses in the Kathua gang-rape and murder case.

The witnesses claimed that they are being harassed by the state police.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud posted the petition for hearing on Wednesday filed by Sahil Sharma and two others, who are college friends of the juvenile accused in the case.

According to their plea, they had already recorded their statements before the police and the magistrate.

The three witnesses had in their statement before the magistrate said they gave their statement to the police under coercion.

Their petition claimed that the state police was now asking them to re-appear and re-record their statements and exerting pressure on their families.

The apex court had on May 7 transferred the trial in the Kathua gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl from Jammu and Kashmir to Pathankot in Punjab but refrained from handing over the probe to CBI saying there was no need as the investigation has been conducted and the charge sheet filed.

The victim, from a minority nomadic community, had disappeared from near her home in a village close to Kathua in the Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.

The state police have filed the main charge sheet against seven people and a separate charge sheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district.