After communal divide, political unity on Kathua
NEWDELHI: From Union minister VK Singh to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, politicians across political lines expressed outrage on Thursday over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu’s Kathua after allegations that there was a prolonged silence from top political leaders over the incident.
Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP said that her government would bring a law that would make the death penalty mandatory in cases where minors were raped. “We will never ever let another child suffer in this way,” she said. Amid protests by the Jammu Bar Association against the handling of the case by the state police’s crime branch, Mehbooba also promised there would be no obstruction of justice.
Terming the rape and murder as an “unimaginable brutality that cannot go unpunished”, Gandhi criticised those indulging in politics over the crime. “How can anyone protect the culprits of such evil?” he asked in a tweet. While the central BJP leadership did not comment on the incident till Wednesday, Singh and the party’s general secretary, Ram Madhav, condemned the crime on Twitter a day later.
JAMMU: The Bar Association of Jammu (BAJ) on Thursday said their agitation for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Kathua rape and murder case was being portrayed as communal by those with a “Kashmir-centric mindset”.
“Lawyers of Jammu are being maligned in order to divide the state on communal lines. All we have been saying is that the investigation of the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation . Does anyone say that the CBI is communal?” association president BS Slathia said.
Reiterating that they wanted justice for the eight-year-old victim , the lawyers’ association said that the probe by the crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police was marred by threats and coercion from a team of Kashmir-based officers, including one who served a jail term for alleged rape and murder of a minor.
“The officer in question has faced murder and rape allegations in the past. We have said the association of this officer with the investigation process has put a question mark on the probe,” Slathia said.
JAMMU STILL TENSE
A day after a bandh called by the Jammu High Court Bar Association (JHCBA), the city continued to wear a deserted look with major shopping areas and trading markets remaining closed.
Jammu has been tense since the Kathua case came to light. The police have arrested eight people in the case, but the Bar association has opposed the action alleging “targeting of minority Dogras”. Some of the accused belonged to Hindu Ekta Manch, a right-wing group. On April 9, some lawyers had tried to prevent police from filing a charge sheet in the case .