Srinagar: A Jammu and Kashmir Police sub-inspector, who was the investigating officer in the Kathua rape-murder, has been detained. Also, a head constable has been arrested for botching up probe into the brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl in January.
Grotesque facts about the police’s involvement in subverting justice have emerged in the rape and murder of the minor girl.
The head constable was arrested on Wednesday evening by the Jammu and Kashmir crime branch, for alleged destruction of crucial evidence.
Special Police Officers, Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Sharma, and another youth have also been arrested.
Earlier, Hiranagar constable Tilak Raj was arrested for allegedly washing the victim’s clothes to get rid of blood stains right before sending them to the forensic investigators.
Sub-inspector Anand Dutta, the investigative officer in the case, is being questioned in connection with the alleged botching up of the probe.
“We are questioning the SI to see if he was aware of Tilak Raj's act of destroying evidence,” sources said.
According to these sources, the crime branch has also laid their hands on crucial evidence such as phone call details and mobile tower location of those who are in police custody now.
According to the investigators, a lot of information has been gathered from near a worship place where the girl was held captive and assaulted.
“The girl was drugged and we have identified the shop from where the drugs were purchased,” the investigator said.
The role of a former revenue official, who is a caretaker of the worship place is also being investigated. “We have enough information about this official,” they added.
“It is now emerging that a lot of people in the village knew where the girl was being kept, drugged and sexually exploited.”
The Crime Branch is also looking at some of the policemen's complicity in delaying the post mortem report and attempts to botch up investigations when the SIT started probing the case.
The investigators are in possession of a preliminary post mortem report, which confirms sexual assault.
The CB investigations have ruffled feathers of the Hindu Ekta Manch, a group spearheading protests in Kathua demanding the case to be transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The outfit has been accusing the Crime Branch of “harassment” and have mounted pressure on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, to transfer the case to CBI.
Two senior BJP ministers, Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, too, have rallied behind the right-wing outfit.
Meanwhile, nearly two months after the girl was abducted, raped and murdered near her home, the Bakerwal community has scripted a series of folk songs to mourn the brutal murder.
“We want to tell the world about what happened to an innocent girl, how her innocence was ravaged,” said her cousin.
“Her pain will now live in the song,” he added.
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