Chandigarh, April 25 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed the bail plea of an accused in the 2018 rape and murder case of a minor nomad girl in Kathua of Jammu and Kashmir.

The high court bench of justice Shalini Nagpal, while dismissing the plea, observed that the acts alleged to have been committed by the petitioner are of a nature which "shocks the collective conscience of society and judicial conscience of the court." It, however, directed the trial court in Pathankot to expedite the proceedings and conclude preferably within one year.

The accused, then a minor, is now 26 years old and has been in custody since January 19, 2018.

Allegations are that in 2018, the nomadic girl was abducted on January 10 that year and ra...