We’ve failed as humans, says VK Singh on child’s rape-murder case

NEW DELHI — Union minister VK Singh on Thursday said “we as humans” had failed the eight-yearold girl from a nomadic community who was gangraped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district but she would not be denied justice.

Asifa from the nomadic Bakarwal 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 have failed her as humans.

“But she will not be denied justice,” the minister of state in the External Affairs Ministry added in his tweet.

State Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said her government will not allow law to be obstructed and justice will be delivered in the case.

The case 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).

“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 Jammu Bar Association on Thursday reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the case, asserting that it did not support the accused but wanted a fair probe.

B.S. Slathia, president of the bar association, told the media that attempts were being made to project the lawyers as supporters of the accused against whom the state Crime Branch has produced a damning charge sheet in the court.

“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,” Slathia asked.

He said the Crime Branch that has been investigating the case has brought an officer from the Kashmir

We have failed Ashifa as humans. But she will not be denied justice. Vijay Kumar Singh @Gen_VKSingh

The Law will not be obstructed by the irresponsible actions & statements of a group of people. Proper procedures are being followed. Mehbooba Mufti, J&K Chief Minister

All we have been saying is that the investigation of the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. B.S. Slathia, president of Bar Association

Valley to carry out the probe while the organisation had enough staff in the Jammu region.

The police charge sheet has said the main accused Sanji Ram, “the mastermind” of the crime, instigated his minor nephew and six others to execute the ghastly act to drive out the Bakarwal community from Hiranagar tehsil.

Conflict had been brewing in recent years between nomads and local population over land disputes. They claimed the herders were encroaching on their lands. There had been scuffles after nomadic girls had been allegedly harassed by local men.

Police say the attack on Asifa was rooted in group politics, with a group of local men planning to scare away the Bakarwals by simply kidnapping a girl.

But once they had Asifa, that plan was quickly forgotten. Forensic reports say she had been drugged with anti-anxiety medication, repeatedly raped, burned, bludgeoned with a rock and strangled. Eventually, her corpse was thrown into the forest where it was found a week later.