'WE HAVE FAILED HER AS HUMANS'
Central Minister VK Singh speaks out MASSIVE OUTRAGE OVER KATHUA, UNNAO RAPE INCIDENTS SWEEPS NATION
Union minister VK Singh on Thursday said “we as humans” had failed the eight-yearold girl from a nomadic minority community who was gang-raped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district but she would not be denied justice.
The child from the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village in Kathua on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area.
Expressing distress over the tragedy, perhaps the first reaction from a BJP minister, he said we had failed her as humans.
“But she will not be denied justice,” the minister of state in the External Affairs Ministry added in his tweet.
With this unspeakable sparking outrage and the case being given a communal colour by a Hindu outfit and Jammu-based politicians and lawyers rallying in support of the accused, police in J&K, hoping to check further polarisation, have sought the appointment of two Sikh police officers as special prosecuting officers in the case.
The J&K Police, sources said, want the Crime Branch case to be represented by Bhupinder Singh and Harminder Singh. While Bhupinder Singh is Chief Prosecuting Officer in the J&K Police prosecution wing, Harminder Singh is Chief Prosecuting Officer, Samba.
Director General of Police S P Vaid has already written to the Principal Secretary (Home) in this connection.
Sources said the police “want to have prosecuting officers from their own ranks” but from a “neutral faith” to avoid further communal division.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said her government would not allow the law to be obstructed and justice would be delivered in the rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl in Kathua district.
“The Law will not be obstructed by the irresponsible actions & statements of a group of people. Proper procedures are being followed; investigations are on the fast track & justice will be delivered,” Mehbooba said in a tweet.
The rape-and-murder of the girl has created a controversy after lawyers in Jammu called for a shutdown on Wednesday, demanding the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On Monday, lawyers in Kathua had tried to prevent the Crime Branch from filing the charge sheet in the case.
Soon after, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, calling it a “crime against humanity.” The Congress president was expected to lead a candle light march to India Gate on Thursday night. Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal will go on an indefinite hunger strike starting Friday at the Rajghat to protest against the Unnao and Kathua rape incidents.
Inhuman, disgusting and chilling is how the Indian film industry described the Kathua and Unnao rapes and demanded the government to act swiftly against the perpetrators.
Personalities such as Sania Mirza, Akshay Kumar, Farhan Akhtar and Abhishek Bachchan took to social media to condemn the two brutal incidents that have shocked the nation.
Celebrities such as Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey and Richa Chadha criticised the politicisation of the crimes in the name of religion.
In Unnao, a teen rape survivor claimed BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar had raped her and her father had died in police custody. The Yogi Adityanathled Uttar Pradesh government today filed a first information report (FIR) against Sengar, following public outrage.
In Kathua, eight-year-old Asifa was allegedly gangraped by six men who had held her in captivity in a small temple village for a week in January. She was drugged so that she could be sexually assaulted again before being bludgeoned to death.
Tennis star Sania Mirza took to Twitter to question the horrific incidents.
"Is this really the kind of country we we want to be known as to the world today ?? If we can't stand up now for this 8-year-old girl regardless of our gender, caste, colour or religion then we don't stand for anything in this world... Not even humanity... Makes me sick to the stomach.
"Justice needs to be done... For the sake of keeping our faith in the judiciary and the system alive... I really hope and pray justice is done... And soon... #Unnaohorror #Unnaorapecase," Mirza wrote on Twitter.
Actor Dia Mirza tweeted, "My heart is broken and I am filled with anger and disgust. Asifa has suffered and gone at the hands of criminals who have also evidently murdered our collective conscience! #Asifa #Kathua #Unnao."
Akshay Kumar demanded quick and efficient deliverance of justice.
"Yet again we've failed as a society. Can't think straight as more chilling details on little Asifa's case emerge... Her innocent face refuses to leave me. Justice must be served, hard and fast!" he tweeted.
Arjun Kapoor also criticised the government for the mishandling of the two rape cases and letting justice being denied in a country divided over caste and religious lines.