Law should be allowed to take its own course, says J&K interlocutor
NEW DELHI: Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre’s special representative to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), will visit the winter capital of the state on Thursday in the backdrop of protests held against the arrest of and subsequent charge sheet filed against eight people accused of raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl in January, senior home ministry officials said.
Sharma, who was visiting Srinagar on Wednesday, is supposed to spend an entire day in Jammu and return back to Delhi where he will brief the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
Sharma’s latest visit gains significance owing to the strike called by the Jammu high court bar association against the state police crime branch, which is probing the gang rape-murder case.
While speaking to HT over the phone, Sharma did not comment on Wednesday’s strike but when asked about lawyers from the Jammu bar association trying to block the filing of the charge sheet against the eight accused, he said, “All I can say at this moment is that the case has been investigated by the state police. It is my understanding that the investigation is complete and now the law should be allowed to take its own course.”
“I will be addressing all prevailing issues in Jammu,” confirmed Sharma who did not elaborate on his plans when asked if he will visit the disturbed Kathua region of Jammu.
Sharma’s Srinagar visit comes on a day when J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti met Union home minister Rajnath Singh at his residence in Delhi to discusses the security situation in the valley. Atleast three MHA officials confirmed to HT that security arrangements in Kashmir were discussed. It’s a horrific, dastardly and inhuman act that should break every conscientious heart. The details in the charge sheet are chilling and makes one’s blood boil. How a group of individuals could plot and execute this barbaric crime is beyond imagination and should make us all ponder where the politics of polarisation and division have led the state. Well, for now the PDP has bent over backwards to allow ministers, legislators and proxy support groups of the BJP the space to obstruct justice and shield the culprits. When two cabinet ministers violated Section 144 and addressed rallies taken out to support the accused, the chief minister remained silent and couldn’t act. That has set this tragedy on a very dangerous course. It’s evident now that proxy fora and organisations are being used to somehow shield the accused and to subvert the legal process.
The fact that lawyers in Kathua tried to prevent the challan to be filed with the judicial magistrate is shocking and extremely condemnable. I’m glad the police have registered an FIR against those who were involved in this attempted obstruction of justice. That said, the forces that have It has revealed not only the severity and the depth of polarisation but also exposed the fact that the ruling dispensation is leaving no stone unturned to further widen this chasm for political dividends. There have been various signs and incidents in the past few years that have indicated the growing levels of polarisation in Jammu but in this case, our worst fears have come true. The polarisation is being further accentuated by the powers that be with each passing day. That smokescreen that was used to justify PDP’S sellout would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic in terms of the costs the state has had to pay. Late Mufti Syed and then Mehbooba Mufti parroted the