CBI BEGINS PROBE INTO KOTKHAI CASE
SHIMLA : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday started probe nto the gangrape and murder of a 16-year- old girl from Kotkhai.
While one team started investigation in Kotkhai, another is camping in Shimla. The team is also learnt to have contacted the family of the accused, Suraj Singh, who died in police custody. Suraj, one of the six suspects arrested in the case, was allegedly strangled by another suspect Rajendra Singh during a scuffle at the Kotkhai police station on Tuesday. Shimla new SP Soumya Sambasivan visited Kotkhai along with DC Rohan Chand Thakur.
Police have decided to shift Suraj’s wife Mamta, 22, to a safer place in S him la. She was brought to Theog under heavy security on Friday to record her statement before the judicial magistrate. “A probe has been ordered into the torching of the police station. Currently, police station will function from the Gumma police chowki till the time we find permanent building,” said the SP.
KOTKHAI (SHIMLA) : The protests sparked off by the gangrape and murder of a Kotkhai schoolgirl followed by the custodial death of a Nepalese rape accused have turnedoutto bethe biggest in the apple heartland since the 1990 violent agitation by the fruit growers against the low support price.
It was in 1990 that the apple belt of Shimla, Kullu and Mandi rallied together to seek a better support price from the then Shanta Kumar-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.
The orchard is ts were demanding that the support price be raised from Rs 2.25 per kg to Rs 5.
Interestingly, that time too the protest started from Theog and Kotkhai. “I still remember the protest, which was touted as the apple agitation, began from Kotkhai and Theogh before spreading across the entire apple belt,” says Sanjay Chauhan, general secretary of Himachal Pradesh Fruit And Vegetable Growers Con federation, a conglomerate of various farmers’ associations.
The farmers laid siege to the town of S him la after the agitation turned violent following the death of three farmers in Kotgarh. The apple-growing region span sS him la, Kinna ur and Ku l lu districts comprising 13assembly segments. Apples are also grown in parts of Mandi and Sirmour district, but the above three districts form the traditional apple belt.
Seeing the situation getting out of hand, the then government had called in the army that marched through the streets. The agitation also widened the regional divide between the upper Himachal comprising the apple belt and the hilly areas, and the lower Himachal consisting of plains.
Unlike the past, this time the social media galvanised the protests. Kotkhai erupted after videos of the murdered girl went viral on the social media. The pictures of the alleged accused were also circulated widely.
The protest is bound to impact the political contour soft he apple growing regions. Until the late 1970s, this belt used to produce mixed electoral results in the assembly elections. But since the late 80s, the Congress presence began to grow stronger.
In 1982, of the eight seats in S him la, the Congress secured six, while the BJP won two. Kullu remained loyal to the saffron fold, where the party won all seats.
The Congress swept all seats— eight in Shimla, three in Kullu andonein Kinnaur—in the1 985 election. The party began to slip in the following elections but the massive agitation by apple growers in 1990 against the Shanta Kumar government again bolstered its fortunes.
The Congress had bagged most of the seats in the 2012 assembly elections too.