Kathua rape accused’s signatures do not match exam sheet: Report

SRINAGAR: The signature of Vishal Jangotra, an accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January, does not match the one he claimed to have made in an exam attendance sheet in Meerut to claim he was not at the crime scene, according to a report of forensic experts.

Vishal, one of the eight accused arrested in the case, had claimed that he was in Meerut and had never visited Kathua when the crime was committed. He had also told the investigators that he had signed the attendance sheet before the examination on January 15.

The report by the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL), detailing this conclusion, has been submitted to the crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police, according to offi- cials in the probe team.

A senior police official said the CFSL report was received by the crime branch five to 10 days ago.

The crime branch, meanwhile, issued notices to three friends of Vishal for appearing before it for questioning on Monday after the Supreme Court gave a go ahead on May 17 for their examination.

In its May 17 order, the top court refused to come to the rescue of the three friends and directed them to appear before the crime branch but said that “a relative of each of the witnesses shall be allowed to accompany him, but the said relative shall not enter into the investigation room. However, he shall remain at a reasonably visible distance.”

While making this concession, the apex court made it cleat that these directions “should not remotely be inferred that there is any kind of harassment by the investigating agency”.

The officials said that the three would be questioned on Monday and all the directions of the apex court would be adhered to.

Officials said the CFSL report stated that Vishal had not signed the attendance sheet and that it was signed by someone else.

The “Questioner of Examined Documents” (QED), who is an expert on examination of handwriting samples, opined that the signatures on the attendance sheet did not match with that of Vishal, son of Sanji Ram, the alleged mastermind.

Officials suspect that someone from the university had allowed Vishal to write his answer sheet after January 15. They alleged that the accused had deliberately visited an ATM and was seen looking at the camera to create an alibi. The girl was kidnapped on January 10 and her body was recovered on January 17.