Major booked for rape, blackmail

THE JAMMU & Kashmir police have booked a serving Army Major on charges of rape, conspiracy and blackmail of his woman colleague who committed suicide at the industrial township of Bari Brahmana in Samba district last month. The woman, also a Major, was 36.

Her former husband, a businessman based in Noida, was also booked on charges of conspiracy and blackmail. However, no arrest has been made so far, police said. The last known posting of the accused, Major Anup Kumar, was Rajouri.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Samba, Joginder Singh, confirmed the registration of FIR against Major Anup and the victim’s former husband. Giving details, police said the woman was found dead, with a bullet wound to her head, on December 15 in her quarters on the Army Supply Corps premises. She appeared to have shot herself as the doors were locked from the inside.

The police had seized a diary, a wallet and the weapon, among other items. Three suicide notes bearing different dates were found. The Forensic Science Laboratory confirmed that two of the three notes bore her handwriting. In one of the notes, sources said, she reportedly wrote that she was being blackmailed and that Major Anup shall be held responsible for her death.

The woman came in contact with Major Anup during her posting in Meerut in 2012-13. He reportedly developed relations with her after promising marriage and started blackmailing her later. Sources said that the woman’s former husband too appeared to have blackmailed her, threatening to make public her relationship with Major Anup.