SrinagarCalls are growing stronger here for justice to the eight-year-old nomad girl who was found raped and murdered in a Kathua village more than a month ago.
Students, academicians, lawyers and traders held protests at the Pratap Park on Thursday decrying demands by a BJP leader to hand the case over to the CBI, which they said amounted to a bid to defend those arrested in the case.
Stressing that they had come out in solidarity with the family of the eight-year-old victim, Asifa Jan, the protestors said that rallies in Kathua in support of the accused were attempts to communalize the crime.
They said that those responsible for the outrage be brought to book, demanding that authorities prevent the process of justice from being derailed by communal politics.
BJP leader and union minister Dr Jitendra Singh Rana, who has been advocating to transfer the case from the Crime Branch of the state police to the CBI, has no faith in the institutions of Jammu and Kashmir, civil society member and former chairperson of the FCIK Shakeel Qalandar said. He has made the demand in order to save the culprits as the CBI would be under the BJPs thumb.
Two Special police Officers have been arrested since January 19 when the government had said that the Kathua police had detained a 15-year-old boy who had confessed to the killing.
The minor accused, who identity has not been disclosed due to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, has, according to the police claimed to have strangulated the girl when she resisted his rape attempt.
Legislators have repeatedly been questioning the lack of action from the police for a week after the girl went missing, and asking how a minor alone could have carried the victims body to its hiding place.
Asifa Bano had been missing since January 10 when she failed to return home from watering horses in her native Rassana forests , and her body was found on January 17.
The next day, after protests rocked the area, the Kathua police had said that an SIT under SDPO border, had been set up to investigate the case and a medical report of the murdered girl was expected within a couple of days.
On January 20, the government transferred the Station House Officer of the Hiranagar police station, ordering a magisterial probe, and three days later, on January 23, handed the case over to the Crime Branch.
Omar Takes Jibe At Mehbooba
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday took a jibe at incumbent CM Mehbooba Mufti amid reports emanating that Kathua minor rape and murder case will be handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The case is presently being handled by Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Omar said if case is handed over to CBI, it will be another installment in the price she (Mehbooba) is paying to remain chief minister.
Taking to social networking site, Twitter, Omar wrote: The case is being handled by the J&K police. If @MehboobaMufti agrees to hand the case over to the CBI it will be another instalment in the price shes paying to remain CM.”
Earlier, Minister of State in Prime Minsiter’s Office, Jitednra Singh said that there is no problem to hand over the case to CBI if people don’t have faith in polcie.
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