SrinagarThe prime accused in plotting gruesome rape and murder of Asifa Banu surrendered before Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Crime Branch of police on Tuesday, a day after his son was arrested from Utter Pradesh.
A local news agency GNS reported the kingpin Sanji Ram, a retired revenue officer, surrendered before the crime branch. The development comes a day after his son Vishal Kumar was caught napping and arrested in connection with the case (FIR No: 10/2018 U/S 363, 320, 376, 302 RPC) from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Both father and son were evading arrest in connection with the gruesome rape and murder which send shock waves across the state.
Sanji has also been a key person behind the Hindu Ekta Manch protests. Officials say he was the custodian of the premises where the minor girl was held captive.
Crime Branch had already ruled out any pressure in arresting the mastermind behind the gruesome rape and murder, underlining that the law will take its own course.
The investigations had revealed that it was not a random crime but part of a wider conspiracy to dislodge the Bakarwal community from the Rassana village in Kathua. Sanji Ram has been bent upon to dislodge the nomad community from Rassana village, the probe said.
The mastermind behind the entire game was bent upon dislodging the Bakarwal community and in order to execute the nefarious design, he hatched conspiracy (with others), the SIT submitted in a status report before the high court last week.
The minor girl 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 a 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. (with inputs from GNS)
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