The Jammu and Kashmir Police while investigating the alleged rape and murder of a minor Bakherwal community girl Asifa, who went missing on 10 January, filed a separate charge sheet on April 11 against another accused, who was earlier said to be a juvenile, at a court in Kathua District. On April 9 charge sheet was filed against seven out of eight accused in the case, the police official confirmed.
Mohd. Yousuf S/o Sahib Din (Victim’s father) has lodged a complaint in P/S Hiranagar on 12 January to the effect that his daughter is missing while she was grazing horses in the nearby forest. On 17 January Asifa’s corpse was recovered and was then taken for autopsy.
“We have filed a separate challan (charge sheet) against another accused in the court today,” a top police officer confirmed.
On April 9 Kathua bar association lawyers held protest demonstration over the presentation of the charge sheet by the crime branch in the rape case in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate. Kirty Bhushan Mahajan, Kathua Bar Association president, has said that the bar association is on strike protesting the crime branch probing the case and is in favour of a CBI inquiry. In response to the same, the Jammu High Court Bar Association has called for a complete bandh in the Jammu region on 11 April.
J&K cops are accusing lawyers of shielding the rapists.
On 10 April an FIR was registered against the lawyers attempting to prevent the police from filing charge sheet in the Kathua rape and murder case.
The Congress Party and CPM have also condemned the lawyers’ protest, alleging that these protests were part of a well-thought-out conspiracy to polarise communities in the state.
