Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 21: The demand of the people of Hiranagar is one and only one: CBI probe into the alleged Kathua rape and murder case. "We do not trust the Crime Branch," they are saying, and adding "hang the arrested 8 Hindus if the CBI found them guilty of committing the heinous crime".
The agitating people of Hiranagar, according to a report based on the situation on ground zero, are asking ten questions and all these questions are very relevant and crucial.
The ten questions are:
"As per the charge sheet, the body lay dumped in the forest till it was discovered on the morning of 17th. The villagers raise several questions.
First, how come the body emanated no foul smell even after three days (13th night, 14th, 15th and 16th)?
Second, why did no one spot the body while on their way to Devasthan, especially on 16 January, when they visited the shrine in large numbers?
Third, why, in the cold of January, did the body not become stiff? Villagers claim that when they saw the body at a protest staged by Bakarwals, it was limp.
Fourth, why would Sanji Ram, to whom his sister had sent his wayward minor son so that he could study under his stern guidance, would deploy him to carry out a criminal conspiracy? Would the mother have sent her son if she knew his brother had such bent of mind?
Fifth, why would the key conspirator leave the body just outside Devasthan even on the day of Fanda when scores of people came and feasted on Bhandara? Why didn't he simply dig up the earth and bury the body? The charge sheet says the accused had washed the girl's clothes to destroy evidence and so "FSL Srinagar could not frame any opinion on the basis of examination of the washed clothes..." But why would the accused only stop at washing clothes and not make any effort to hide the body?
Sixth, how did no one spot the girl in the Devasthan even on 13 January when lots of people visited the place? "It was Lohri. We all went to Devasthan. Food was distributed. We picked up darees from the table and placed them on the floor to sit and sing devotional songs. There is no chance a girl is kept under the table and no one sees it," said Bishan Das, a 76-year-old Rasana resident who retired as subedar from the Army.
Seventh, how could Sanji Ram's son, Vishal Jangotra, be in Meerut and Kathua at the same time? The crime branch investigation places Vishal in Rasana while the college records show that he was giving exams in Meerut. His elder sister Monika shows us Vishal's instagram posts which display Muzzafarnagar as his location. But it's fairly easy to retrospectively change the location of an Instagram post. However, the jury is still out on whether Vishal was indeed in Rasana at that time. The police say they have confiscated the CCTV footage of the exam centre but hasn't revealed its findings yet. "First, they tried framing Sanji Ram's elder son, but since he is in the Navy, they knew it wasn't possible to do so. Later, they decided to go with Vishal," says a family member of Jangotra.
Eighth, the charge sheet mentions that the juvenile hit the girl with a stone twice and "killed her by pressing his knees against her back and strangulated the girl by applying force on both the ends of her chunni." However, according to the medical reports, the "...victim had been kept without food and administered sedatives and her cause of death was asphyxia leading to cardiopulmonary arrest." Which one is it?
Ninth, the charge sheet says the investigation team found a hair strand in the Devasthan. If the girl was kept for days in the room, how come the cops found only a strand of hair there?
Tenth, how come the mastermind of the sordid tale who is supposed to have carried out the grand conspiracy turned out to be a nincompoop? When he spent lakhs in bribing local cops for covering it all up, why couldn't he arrange a vehicle to bury or hide the body? Why, of all the places in the entire jungle, would he chose to throw the body in the open, barely a stone's throw-away from his home, at a spot from where his house is the nearest and thus most vulnerable to suspicion?
These questions just can't be brushed aside or dismissed as something silly and preposterous. It would be in the interest of justice system if the issues raised by the people of Hiranagar are satisfactorily addressed. |
