Kathua rapemurder: CM rejects demand for CBI probe
Move comes even as allegations of shoddy investigation by the crime branch continue; govt says police to file chargesheet soon
JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday turned down the BJP’s demand for a CBI probe into the rape-andmurder case of an eight-year-old girl. The chief minister said 95% of the probe has been completed in the case, health minister Health Bali Bhagat told reporters. here. “The CM said the crime branch will submit chargesheet in a day or two,” Bhagat said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), partner in the coalition government of Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday said that chief minister Mehbooba Mufti didn’t concede to the demand for CBI probe into the alleged rape and murder of a minor nomadic girl in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district.
Addressing a press conference here this evening, health minister Bali Bhagat said that a delegation of BJP ministers met chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and raised three issues before her.
“We raised the Kathua rapemurder case. While police (crime branch) investigations are still ongoing, some mistakes might creeped in and that is why people were demanding a CBI probe,” he said.
Bhagat further said, “The BJP delegation put forth this demand of the people but the chief minister said that almost 95% of the investigations have been completed and probably, in a couple of days, the investigating agency is going to submit a challan (chargesheet) in the high court. Thereafter, the court of law will adjudicate over it.”
An eight-year-old girl from a nomadic tribe was allegedly raped and murdered brutally in Rassana village in Hiranagar tehsil. She had gone missing from her house on January 10 and her body was recovered from a cowshed in Rassana on January 17.