The Jammu and Kashmir Police have filed an FIR against a group of lawyers who are protesting and attempting to stop Crime Branch officials from performing their duty of the filing a charge sheet against 8 people in the alleged rape and killing of a minor girl.
The body of the girl, from the Bakherwal community, a nomadic Muslim tribe, has been recovered from the Rassana forest on the last 17th January, after a week she went missing while scuffed horses in the jungle area.
The Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, searching the accused rape and murder of the girl in Kathua district, filed the charge-sheet against seven of the eight alleged in the case at a court in Kathua, in the middle of protests by local lawyers on the last Monday.
The case has turn to be communally sensitive and the different political parties which have been jumped into the controversy with allegations and counter-allegations larger than the handling of the matter.
On the last Tuesday, the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, speak about the accused rape and murder of the minor girl, filed a detach charge sheet against a juvenile charged in the case at a court in Kathua district.
“An FIR has been lodged against a group of lawyers who held protests and tried to prevent the Crime Branch officials from performing their duty,” a senior police official said to the media house PTI.
He stated that the advocates have not been identified so far and their recognition is components of the investigation.
Come with by the accused on the last yesterday, a team of Crime Branch faced stiff confrontation from the members of the Kathua Bar Association, who were saying the slogans “go back crime branch” during filing of the charge sheet and the going protests.
The Kathua Bar Association said that the Crime Branch was obliged to leave the property without filing the charge sheet anyway.
On the last 23rd January, the government had handed over the case to the Crime Branch of the state police that is formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and arrested eight persons, counting 2 special police officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destructions of the proves and evidence.
Among the indicted people, former revenue official and the alleged conspirator, Sanji Ram (60), surrendered before the Crime Branch on the 20th March post his son, Vishal, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh.
“All the members of the Bar have strongly agitated against the presentation of challan (charge sheet) by the Crime Branch in the Rassana case,” president of the Kathua Bar Association, Kirty Bhushan Mahajan, said in a statement.
“The agitation of the Bar proved successful and the Crime Branch was compelled to go back and the challan could not be presented in the court of chief judicial magistrate Kathua,” he told.
He told that the Bar is already on strike against the investigation of the case by the Crime Branch which strongly favors a CBI inquiry into the occurrence and the incident.
“All the Bar members strongly condemned the conduct of the Crime Branch in dealing the issue. The state government has failed to deal the issue or understand the sentiments of the people. The agitation of the Bar shall continue and it has unanimously decided to keep the work under suspension until April 12,” Mahajan stated.
