Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 20: A major development took place on Friday, which has the potential of puncturing the balloon of those who wanted legal proceedings against the Jammu lawyers, who struck work in the courts, including High Court, for twelve days on four issues, including Rohingyas, Orders of state government to Dy Commissioners and IGP Jammu and Police officers not to evict tribal encroachers from state/forest land in Jammu, alleged Rassana rape and murder case and district status to Nowshera.
Today's development could also change the nature of discourse on the much-debated Rassana rape and murder case, as none other than Senior Additional Advocate General Lalit Moza, senior J&K BJP leader, called the "bluff" of his colleague Deepika Rajawat, who had been making out a big issue by telling that "the Jammu Bar Association obstructed her from appearing before the High court to fight the case of a minor girl", who was allegedly raped and murder at Rassana village in Hiranagar of Kathua district in January 2018.
Appearing today before the visiting 5-member Bar Council of India (BCI) team at the J&K HC Jammu complex, Moza in the presence of hundreds of lawyers told the team members that "he was representing the state (in Mohd Akhtar Vs State and others, OWP No. 259/2018) and "no one obstructed Deepika from appearing before the Judge (Aloke Aradhe)". Sources in the High Court say that "Depika appeared on all the dates fixed for hearing of the case and the dates included February 9, 19 and 21, 2018, March 9 and 14 and April 9 and 11".
What Lalit Moza said must not have gone down well with certain elements in the establishment who were using Deepika's statement as a tool to weaken the striking lawyers' case. The question being asked now is, "Will Lalit Moza go former Additional Advocate General Vishal Sharma and Deputy Advocate General Parimoksh Seth's way?"
On September 23, 2015, the Mufti Sayeed-led PDP-BJP coalition government terminated the services of two law officers, Additional Advocate General Vishal Sharma and Deputy Advocate General Parimoksh Seth, as the beef ban controversy turned huge in J&K. |
