| 'Contradiction in charge-sheet, post-mortem report' | | Kathua rape-murder | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 5: The Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), which submitted its fact-finding report on the Kathua rape and murder to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and MoS in PMO Jitendra Singh on Friday in New Delhi, has questioned the manner in which three investigating teams were changed rapidly, within a span of just 10 days, from January 12, 2018, when the police first registered a missing person report, to January 23.
From January 12-18, the investigation was done by the SHO, Hiranagar. Then, from January 19-20, the probe shifted to the ASP Samba, Adil Hamid Raza. From January 23 onwards, the case has been with the Crime Branch Jammu.
The Crime Branch team is headed by Naveed Peerzada, SSP Crime Branch Kashmir. The DSP, Crime Branch Jammu, Nisar Hussain, faces allegations of destruction of evidence in another case. Another DSP Crime Branch Jammu, Shwetambari Sharma, is the Investigating Officer (IO); Urfan Wani, SI Crime Branch Jammu, is a Kashmiri officer who has been charge-sheeted for the custodial death of a Hindu boy and rape of his minor sister; and Tariq Ahmed, ASI, Crime Branch Kashmir (also from Kashmiri).
"Thus, the Crime Branch team is packed with officers from Kashmir, not Jammu. Both accused officers have been acquitted, but this cuts little ice in the sensitive Jammu region," the fact-finding report has said.
As for the allegation of gang-raping, the charge-sheet filed by the Crime Branch, according to the GIA, has raised "several relevant questions". The charge-sheet mentions "gang-raping by at least three persons over many days, which is not corroborated by the injuries described in the post-mortem report.
The GIA team has made a comparison with the post-mortem report of a separate case of an eight-year-old girl, who had been raped and murdered; the injuries reported on her private parts were severe with intense bleeding. No such injuries have been reported on the victim in the Kathua incident, though the charge sheet says it is a gang rape. The post-mortem report mentions abrasions but no injuries, the GIA has revealed.
"It is pertinent that the body of such a young child would tear if subjected to gang-rape; no such violent injuries are reported. Most astonishingly, no residual bloodstains have been found at the Devsthan, if that was indeed the site of the crime. Nor did the police or Crime Branch seal the structure, which is an alleged crime scene," the GIA has said.
Members of the group comprised Meera Khadakkar, former District Judge, Nagpur; Monika Arora, Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Sarjana Sharma, senior journalist; Sonali Chitalkar, Assistant Professor, Miranda House, Delhi University; and Monicca Agarwaal, an entrepreneur and a social activist. They were driven by the fact that while the incident happened between January 10 and 17 it was given communal colour once it came into the limelight in March-April. |
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