New Delhi

The Congress welcomed the court verdict in the Kathua rape-and-murder case on Monday and hoped that the victim's family would be able to "find justice" in it.

A court in Punjab's Pathankot sentenced the three main accused in the gangrape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua to life imprisonment on Monday, while awarding a five-year jail term to three others for destruction of evidence.

"We welcome the High Court's judgement in the Kathua rape & murder case (sic)," the Congress wrote on its Twitter handle, adding that it hoped that through the verdict, the girl's family could "find justice".

The girl was kidnapped on January 10 last year and gangraped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua after having been kept sedated for four days. She was later bludgeoned to death.

The incident led to a countrywide outcry and the trial was held on a day-to-day basis at the district and sessions court in Pathankot.

"Glad that 6 of the Kathua gang rape and murder accused are now convicted. Never forget that BJP leadership in Jammu rallied around these 6 monsters, gave them support & attempted to prevent law from taking its own course," senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi wrote on Twitter.

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