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| CM orders judicial inquiry in Shopian rape, murder incidents | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Srinagar, June 1: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today announced judicial enquiry, headed by retired Justice Muzaffar Jan, to probe the mysterious death of two women in Shopian district on Friday. He said Justice Jan will probe the circumstances leading to the death of these women and submit report in one month to the Government, which will be subsequently tabled in the Assembly to make the facts public.
The Chief Minister said his government will not hide facts, nor shield guilty persons or tolerate abuse of power. “If I have to choose between credibility and power, I will sacrifice power since people’s trust is paramount for me”, he said.
The Chief Minister said this while addressing a crowded press conference here this afternoon. He was accompanied by Minister for Finance, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather and Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar.
Terming the Shopian incident as unfortunate, the Chief Minister said his government has acted to ascertain facts wherever use of excessive force has been alleged. Citing incident of Bomai in which the government ordered a time-bound enquiry, the Chief Minister said if the enquiry commission in the Shopian case establishes that the two women have been raped and murdered, the persons responsible will receive severest punishment.
“This is not an open-ended probe. Though Justice Jan asked for one month to submit report, I requested him to complete his probe in lesser time”, the Chief Minister said, urging people to give time to his government to establish truth in the matter.
Giving details about the decision to institute judicial enquiry to probe the matter, the Chief Minister said this was done to reaffirm the resolve of the government not to hide anything and be transparent in such matters. He said the terms of reference will be given to the Commission which will investigate the incident in one month and the government will act on the report submitted by Justice Jan. “Please allow us to reach the truth”, he asked people and the media and urged them not to jump to conclusion. The Chief Minister said he will not shy away from exhuming the bodies of the deceased women to establish the truth, if the Inquiry Commission so felt. “In order to reach the bottom of the case, I will order exhumation of the bodies of the two women and fresh autopsy by an independent panel comprising doctors from any part of the country”, the Chief Minister maintained.
Asking media persons not to look for knee-jerk reactions in such sensitive cases, the Chief Minister pointed out to one English news channel which was running a ticker captioned – “Bandh call against rape and murder of two women by security forces”. He said he at least expected the channel to use word “alleged”, since nobody knows the circumstances that led to the death of the two women.
While replying to a question, the Chief Minister said the Deputy Commissioner, Shopian has already been transferred for not dealing with the situation properly and added that it was also looking into the role of the Health Department and if it is found that any lapse in conduct of duties has been committed by the doctors, strong action will be taken accordingly.
Referring to the killing of a person at Alochi Bagh, the Chief Minister said it was a case of blatant misuse of power by an SOG official for his own personal interest. “The deceased person owed the SOG official Rs.40,000 for which he called him to the SOG camp”, the Chief Minister said, adding he has recommended the dismissal of the said SOG official from service.
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