Kathua rape and murder: NC demands shifting of case

Srinagar, Apr 10: A day after Jammu lawyers blocked the Crime Branch officials from filing charge sheet against accused of Kathua rape and murder case at the concerned district court, Opposition National Conference on Tuesday demanded shifting of the case to some other local court in order to ensure its fair trial.
While addressing a press conference, NC’s General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said the protection of “culprits” by lawyers “unanimously” at Jammu has been witnessed for the first time in the judicial history of the state.
“It is unfortunate and worth condemnation. It happened for the first time in the state’s history that the protectors of the law and justice are shielding a criminal. The incident has put everyone head to shame,” he said
Sagar said that the refusal by Chief Judicial Magistrate for charge sheet and blocking of Crime Branch officials by lawyers from entering the court room clearly “depicted the designs of these fringe groups.”
“The situation was such that the Law Minister had to intervene yesterday. The Crime Branch already revealed that some police officials were involved in destroying the evidences. They can go up to any extent, so we appeal the government to transfer this case immediately to some other court.”
The NC General Secretary said that a deep rooted conspiracy has been underway to “mobilise” people on the basis of religion.
“We have seen that two ministers of state government and the concerned MLA addressed people to incite them. People have been slowly mobilized to politicise and communalise the incident. There is a well-designed conspiracy to divide people on religion to affect integrity and unity of J&K,” he said.
Sagar said that the case should be dealt on the pattern followed during Nirbhaya case.
“The culprits should be identified and isolated. The case should be dealt like that of Nirbhaya.”
The NC General Secretary appealed the Jammu people to defeat the “Jammu Bandh” call given by the local Bar Association on April 11.
“Jammu majority community accepted migrated Pandits in the 1990s, wholeheartedly. They need to show similar kind of determination this time as well by defeating the fringe elements. Their call for April 11 should be defeated,” he said.
Sagar asked the state government to prove “honesty” in the case related to rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa.
“NC will be playing its role of watching and guarding the principles of unity for which the state is known. Even Mahatma Gandhi had said that he saw a ray of hope in Kashmir. Last time we took this matter to assembly but we felt like government stand has weakened since then,” he said.
“It is quite surprising to see whether the state government was aware of the fact that it knew that its own members are behind the shielding of the criminals,” Sagar said.
NC president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday also reprimanded the lawyers who prevented the police from filing charge sheet at court in Kathua.
Taking to the social networking site Twitter Omar wrote: “Shame on them & their political masters. An 8-year-old girl is raped & murdered and these so-called lawyers do not want to see justice delivered.”