The Punjab and Haryana High Court will on July 18 hear a petition seeking an enhancement of the sentence awarded to the convicts of rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu’s Kathua in 2018. Justice Rajiv Sharma said this while during the preliminary hearing of the case on Wednesday.Connected matters are scheduled for hearing on that day.

The girl from the nomadic Bakerwal community was kidnapped from Kathua’s Rasana area on January 10 in 2018 and found dead on January 17.

The victim’s father had approached the High Court seeking an enhancement of the sentence awarded to six convicts. In his petition, he also challenged the acquittal of one accused.

Last month, a special court in Pathankot sentenced three of the six men to life imprisonment and awarded five years in prison to the other three. One of the accused was acquitted. The victim’s father has pleaded thatit’s a rarest of the rare cases and as per the standards set by the Supreme Court.