NC wants bill to award death for raping minor
FRESH PLEA Farooq Abdullah vows to bring a law if his party returns to power in J&K, says terrorism affecting state’s only source of income
chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said his party would bring a law to award capital punishment in Kathua like cases, if it came back to power in the state.
Abdullah was in Amritsar to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple.
Commenting on the Kathua rape case, Abdullah said, “It is painful that an eight-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped and killed.
“On one side, we respect women, treat girl child as a goddess and kiss their feet, but on the other side such incidents bring shame to us. Kathua like rapes are happening all over India just because our government fails to make any stringent law against rapists. We attained independence from foreign powers, but the country is still victimised by such crimes.”
Abdullah’s comments came in the wake of the Kathua rape case, in which an eight-year-old muslim nomadic girl was allegedly abducted, drugged, gangraped, tortured and killed.
‘INDIA-PAK SHOULD ERADICATE TERRORISM THROUGH DIALOGUES’
The former chief minister said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised an aide of Rs 80,000 crore for the overall development of J&K, which should be released immediately as the state has been reeling under many problems like unemployment and poverty.”
He said the only source of income for J&K is tourism, which is affected badly due to terrorism in the state.
“For flourishing tourism, terrorist activities should be eradicated completely. I request the government of India and Pakistan to sort out the issue through dialogues,” he added.
“Dialogue between both the nations will improve bilateral relations,” he said.
‘2019 POLLS SHOULD NOT BE ABOUT RELIGION’
“As 2019 elections are coming, I hope that the election does not separate religions in India,” the NC president said.
Appealing all political parties to not fight elections in the name of religion, Abdullah said,“Making India more progressive should be the agenda during the elections. If political parties go ahead for religious polities, it will weaken the country.”
Abdullah has been accusing the BJP of indulging in ‘divisive politics’ and attempts of ‘sowing seeds of hatred and mistrust’ among various communities for petty political gains.
‘I GET PEACE IN GOLDEN TEMPLE (IN AMRITSAR)’
Abdullah, also a member of Parliament, said he gets peace and tranquillity after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple.
“People come here to seek pardon for their sins from the almighty. I prayed to ‘Waheguru’ for peace and integrity in India,” he said.
Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU), Meerut, has constituted a threemember committee to look into claims of the Jammu SIT, which is probing the Kathua gang rape and murder case, that one of the accused had used a proxy to appear for the university examination on his behalf.
“The committee (would) examine all documents related to the presence of the accused student, Vishal Jangotra, during the examination,” said CCSU pro vice-chancellor, Prof HS Singh.
He said the committee comprises university’s registrar, GP Srivastava, a professor, and a retired principal of a degree college.
Vishal is a BSc (first-year) student at Akansha College in Meerapur town of Muzaffarnagar. He is the son of main accused Sanji Ram, who too was arrested along with his minor nephew and a special police officer (SPO) Deepak Khajuria.
Vishal had claimed he was appearing for his examination at KK Jain Degree College in Khatauli when the incident took place. The crime branch, in its charge sheet, said the accused arranged for a dummy candidate to appear for the examination on his behalf.
An eight-year-old girl kidnapped, confined inside a temple, drugged, gang-raped and murdered in a village in Kathua in Jammu. Her body was found ten days later on January 17.
As per the charge sheet, the crime of the Bakarwal girl was part of a planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic Muslim community from there.
AMRITSAR:Former MEERUT: