People up in arms against BJP for letting down Jammu
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 15: Persistent rejection of the demand for Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) probe into Rassana rape-cum-murder of an eight year old girl by the PDP-BJP coalition Govern-ment notwithstanding, there has been overwhelming perception among the people of Jammu that only a CBI probe can give justice to the minor and her family as there has been history of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Crime Branch failures in many prestigious cases prompting the judiciary to intervene and handover the cases to the Central investigating agency.
Even the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Opposition National Conference, which have been opposing, tooth and nail, the CBI probe demand into Rassana rape, obviously for political reasons, had been in forefront in raising such a demand for many cases in Kashmir or themselves handing over the cases to the CBI when they were in power.
Significantly, not only the Hindus but number of Gujjar and Bakerwals including some relatives of the victim were of the view that only a CBI probe can bring out the facts in mysterious rape-cum-murder of little girl and give justice to her as well as her family, apart from eight persons including police personnel, who have been arrested and charged with rape and murder by the Crime Branch.
In 2009 much publicized case of the killing of Nelofar and Asiya in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, which was in Opposition then, was in forefront in demanding CBI probe alleging that the girls had been raped and killed by security forces. Initially, the NC, which was running coalition with the Congress then headed by Omar, had ordered Judicial Inquiry into the killing by Justice Muzaffar Jan, but finally handed over the case to the CBI for “fair probe”.
The CBI had concluded that the girls had died of drowning and gave clean chit to all five police officers including then SSP Shopian Javed Iqbal Mattu, who had been victimized, arrested and suspended. The PDP as an Opposition party then had refused to trust the police investigations but now as a ruling party, it was adamant on Crime Branch probe into Rassana rape and was refusing to handover the case to the CBI notwithstanding the majority view in Jammu, which was in favour of the probe by the Central agency as the people opined that the minor girl and her family should get justice with the arrest of real culprits, who perpetrated such a heinous crime.
In 2006 when PDP-Congress were running the coalition and National Conference was in Opposition, the NC had forcefully demanded handing over of Kashmir sex scandal to the CBI. The PDP-Congress Government had handed over case to the CBI in which bigwigs like top bureaucrat, politicians, Advocates, security officers etc were involved.
People here wanted to know from the PDP and NC that if their decisions to demand and order CBI probe into Shopian `killings’ and Kashmir sex scandal were justified, how the demand for similar probe into Rassana incident can by unjustified?
“Isn’t it double standards of PDP and NC? If the CBI probe suits them, they demand it or order it? And now since the demand has been coming from Jammu especially from the areas, where these two parties have very little or even no political ground, they are opposing it,” a number of people, who were interviewed on the issue by the Excelsior, observed.
But what has shocked the people of Jammu most is the “shameful stand” taken by the BJP, which has forced its two Cabinet Ministers to resign for supporting the demand of Hiranagar people for CBI probe into the killing.
“We had given BJP 25 out of 37 Assembly seats in Jammu region and both the Lok Sabha seats but look, how badly and miserably, they have let us down. They have brought shame to the people of Jammu by their stand of not supporting the demand of CBI probe and dismissing two Ministers under the influence of ‘totally misleading coverage by Kashmir-centric national media’ and to appease their coalition partner to stay in power,” the people said and vowed to teach the BJP a strong lesson in the next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Records revealed that the State High Court had on November 21, 2012, cast serious aspersions on Jammu and Kashmir Police probe into the killings of 19 people, 13 of them women, by the militants at village Sailan in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district in 1998.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have taken no action for 14 years. These were the remarks of the State High Court on November 21, 2012 while handing over investigations of brutal killing of 19 civilians at Sailan, Surankot, to the Central Bureau of Investigations.
Jammu and Kashmir Police has failed to solve the missing case of 12 year old child for two years. These were the words of the State High Court on February 12, 2016 while handing over the missing child case of Vijaypur to the CBI.
The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police had after 13 years of investigations into the missing of holy Quran manuscript bearing seal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb from Srinagar Museum, closed the case. The High Court had ordered CBI probe into the theft on September 22, 2016.
Majority of people in Jammu were of the view that the Jammu and Kashmir Government should have learnt lessons from Haryana Government, which handed over the school child murder case to the CBI and within days, entire course of investigations was changed. Initially, police had arrested a conductor of the school bus for murder and forced him to confess the killing but the CBI established that a school student was the accused and ordered release of the hapless conductor.
Even the Uttar Pradesh Government immediately handed over Unnao rape case to the CBI in which ruling BJP MLA was involved.
“If the Government is really interested in giving justice to Rassana rape victim and her family, it should handover the case to the CBI immediately for free, fair and impartial probe, which would lead to the arrest of real culprits,” the people said, adding if all those arrested presently turned out to be the accused even in the CBI probe, they should be hanged.
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