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| ‘No marks of Sindoor, no gang rape evidence’ | | Justice Jan reprimands media for wrong reporting on Shopian | | AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Aug 7: Justice Muzaffar Jan Commission of Enquiry on alleged rape-cum-murder of two young women in Shopian has reprimanded media for ‘incorrect reporting’ and observed that it had not only misled the people at large but also created law and order problems in Kashmir valley. While asking the state government to draft and implement guidelines so as to ensure that such reporting did not subscribe to the mess in future, Justice Jan has pointed out that most of the facts reported by media were misleading and baseless.
The inquiry, conducted by a retired judge of Jammu & Kashmir High Court, had been ordered by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in days of the recovery of the dead bodies of Neelofar Jan (25) and Asiya Jan (17) from Rambiara Nallah in Shopian in controversial circumstances on May 30th last. While a Special Investigating Team (SIT) of J&K Police, headed by an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police, has failed to identify and arrest the killers in the last two months and then SP of Shopian, Javed Iqbal Matoo, has been in jail alongwith other officials, Chief Minister today laid copy of the Jan Commission report on the table of the House in Legislative Assembly.
Addressing reference No: 4 of the terms of reference---to suggest remedial measures to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future---Justice (retired) Muzaffar Jan has clarified in the report that there were no marks of Sindoor (vermilion) on the forehead of unmarried Asiya. Apparently for creating an impression that the young Muslim lass had been raped and murdered by Hindus, some of the politicians and newspapers had claimed that the marks of a Hindu ritual had been “clear” on Asiya’s forehead.
“During enquiry, it was found that there was a grave injury of 3 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 cm deep on the forehead of Asiya, which was bleeding even at the time of post mortem. The flow of blood on the forehead was shamefully distorted and projected as a mark of Sindoor”, says the report. It adds: “It was reported in the Press that the garments of the dead bodies were torn. During enquiry, it was found that the Ferak and Shalwar of both the dead bodies were not torn as reported in the Press”.
“It was also reported that there were multiple injuries on the dead body of Neelofar. Both the teams of doctors have given consistent statement that there were no visible external injuries on the dead body of Neelofar”, says the enquiry report according to which only one external injury had been found on one of the two bodies. Post mortem says that even the undergarments were intact and there were no other marks of violence on or around the genital organs. “Although wide publicity was given that the girls have been gang raped, but during the enquiry no evidence of gang rape was found by the team of medical experts”, Justice Jan observes in the report.
“It was also reported in the Press that Neelofar was pregnant. But on post mortem examination of Dr Bilal he found that Neelofar was not pregnant”, says the enquiry report in strong censurement of the newspapers that had carried such reports without any verification of facts.
Even as a senior separatist leader had claimed, on the basis of his purported “reports” from Shopian, that Neelofar had called her husband on a mobile phone and screamed that CRPF soldiers were chasing her and Asiya---most of the newspapers carried it approvingly---Justice Jan observes that the women had neither carried a phone nor made a call.
“Shakeel Ahmed (husband of Neelofar), Syed Zeerak Shah (brother of Neelofar) and Posha (cousin sister of Neelofar) in one voice have stated in their statement before the Commission, on oath, that Neelofar did not have any mobile phone, and never called, alleging chase by CRPF persons. The investigating team of the Commission scrutinized 32,686 calls and found that Neelofar did not have a mobile phone on 29-05-2009”, says the report.
According to the enquiry report, newspapers had described the area of Neelofar’s orchard as “hundreds of kanals with thousands of fruit trees”. It claims that the actual area of the orchard was found as 1 kanal and 16 marlas and total number of its fruit trees as 35. In contradiction of a newspapers’ sustained allegation that armed forces had forced an “eyewitness” (Jamal Gujjar) to leave the area during the night of occurrence, Jan Commission report claims that the migrant Gujjar from Kalakote was continuously living at Dehgam, Shopian, alongwith his family, and he had never disappeared as he is employed as Chowkidar of the local Islamia Darsgah.
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