Bar Council of India supports call for CBI Probe; Gives clean chit to protesting Jammu lawyers

New Delhi, Apr 26: Giving a clean chit to the agitating Jammu lawyers including its members in Kathua who forcibly stopped the Crime Branch of the state police from filing the chargesheet against the accused in the rape and murder of an eight year girl, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has claimed that “Jammu lawyers did not obstruct justice in the Kathua rape case”.
However, interestingly, the Bar Council’s team ignored the public statement issued by Kathua Bar Association in which had justified its action in physically preventing the Crime Branch team from filing the charge sheet against the accused rapists.
The report submitted by the BCI, submitted to the Supreme Copurt, has gone a step ahead in defending the Jammu lawyers said that “their demand for a CBI investigation into the matter is “justified”.
Stating that these were the conclusions of a probe team it sent to the state that was led by a by a retired High Court judge, and the said team after due investigation has submitted a report that gave a clean chit to the lawyers.
The top court had earlier pulled up the Jammu lawyers for obstructing the legal process after a group of lawyers made it virtually impossible for the Crime Branch team to file charge sheet against the rape and murder accused.
Lawyers belonging to the Kathua Bar Association held protests at the court premises and for hours, stopped police officers from entering the court to file a charge sheet. Even the Crime Branch sleuths had admitted publicly that they were obstructed by the Kathualwyers from filing the charge sheet before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate.
The protests by the lawyers had been one of the key fallouts of the shocking gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old child in the state that has triggered a nationwide outrage.
The state police said the child was subjected to horrific tortures to scare off the nomadic Bakerwal community, to which she belonged, from Hindu majority areas.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the case, however, triggered a backlash, with a groundswell of support for the accused. It was alleged that the state’s lawyers’ were a part of that section and had not allowed the filing of chargesheet in the case.
Deepika Rajawat, who is representing the child’s family, complained that members of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association had threatened her, demanding that she does not appear in the case.
Her allegations, the association has told the Supreme Court that her statements are “contradictory”.
The association also said they were being unfairly portrayed as communal in the national media. Their demand for a CBI inquiry was meant to ensure justice in the case and their protest was against the illegal presence of Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals in Jammu.