The trial in the gruesome Kathua rape and murder case began on Monday against eight accused who allegedly held an eight-year-old girl in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district for a week in January this year during which she was kept sedated and was sexually assaulted before being murdered. All eight accused pleaded not guilty on the opening day of the trial in the principal district and sessions court in Kathua on Monday which posted the next hearing in the case for April 28.