On July 20, 2007, Tabinda Gani, a class VIII student from north Kashmir was waylaid by the four persons while on her way to school. She was forcibly taken to nearby orchards where she was raped and later killed. The accused later concealed her body in the bushes.
The investigation of the case was assigned to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the J&K Police. Some of the locals of the area provided inputs to the Police over phone. During investigation, about 16 suspects were rounded up and on investigation, four accused persons confessed their involvement in the incident. They are Muhammed Sadiq Mir, Azhar Ahmad Mir (both local residents) Jahangir Ansari of West Bengal and Suresh Kumar of Rajasthan. The involvement of non-Kashmiri labourers in the crime turned public anger against all the non-local workers in the state, triggering calls for their expulsion from the state.
The J&K police investigations revealed that all the four accused persons were close associates of each other for the previous two years. On the fateful day of the incident, all the four accused were in an inebriated condition.
They followed the girl on her way to school and later raped her. The accused apprehended that the victim may narrate the tale to the family members and hence, they decided to eliminate her. Using a local made knife, one of the accused slit her throat, leading to her death. Subsequently, they buried her body leaving her face open in the apple orchards some 150 meters from the link road leading to Batapora.
The accused then left the scene of crime and went to their respective locations. They even joined the protests against the murder. The body was brought by Police to Langate Sub District Hospital. The SIT of Police produced a chargesheet in Session Court Handwara on 17 October, 2007.
The rape and murderi evoked massive anger in Valley. The then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad promised to hold the speedy trial in the case. The High Court too intervened. On the direction of High court Srinagar, the Session Court Kupwara was asked to hear the case thrice in a week.
On January 1, 2008 Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani directed the principal district judge of Kupwara that the case be tried on a weekly-basis, by fixing a three-day schedule for recording evidence each week to speed up the trial. Justice Kirmani issued the directions in his capacity as the administrative judge of Kupwara district. The trial court was also directed to submit the weekly reports regarding progress of the trial regularly to the high court.
The locals formed Justice for Tabinda Forum, a local coordination committee to mobilize the public opinion in the case . The committee was first headed by a noted lawyer Shabnum Lone.
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