Srinagar: Amid an outcry over alleged rape and murder of a minor in the Kathua district, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has said that the state government will bring a stringent new law to make the death penalty mandatory for those who rape minors.


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Expressing her concerns over the brutal rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in the Kathua district, the ruling PDP leader took to Twitter and announced that her government will ensure that no other child will ever face such brutality and atrocity.  


Mehbooba further assured the entire nation that she stands committed to ensuring justice in the Kathua rape and murder case. 


She also called for exemplary punishment for those responsible for the crime.


An eight-year-old girl in Kathua, belonging to a nomadic Muslim tribe in the district, was sedated time and again before being raped and killed. She was abducted on January 10 and was later strangled to death on January 14. The body of the girl was recovered from Rassana forest on January 17 - nearly a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area. 


The alleged rape and murder of the 8-year-old girl has triggered severe protest across the state. 


Protests are being held across the state demanding justice for the victim of Kathua rape and murder case, especially in the Rasana village from where her body was found. People of this village are sitting on indefinite hunger strike. They are demanding a CBI probe in rape and murder of the 8-year-old girl.


Meanwhile, the families of those accused in the Kathua rape and murder case have also demanded a probe by a competent agency to ascertain the truth.


The Kathua BJP MLA -  Rajiv Jasrotia – has also been untraceable ever since he was interrogated about the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in his constituency in Jammu and Kashmir. 


Faced with a challenge to bring to book the culprits behind the Kathua rape and murder case, the J&K Police had reconstructed the scene of the crime to gather vital clues. 


The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police filed two separate chargesheets against the eight accused persons including a juvenile held in the case. According to investigators, the girl was held captive inside a 'Devisthan', gang-raped, kept without food and administered sedatives.


Her cause of death was asphyxia leading to a cardio-pulmonary arrest, the investigations revealed. 


"In the course of an investigation, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) members along with Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) experts and Naib Tehsildar (executive magistrate) again visited the scene of occurrence and tried to reconstruct the scene of the crime," according to the chargesheet.


Separately, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday led a midnight march to protest against the Kathua rape and murder case and attacked the Narendra Modi government of inaction.