Kathua rape-murder case: Arrested cops move HC

JAMMU: The two policemen arrested for allegedly destroying evidence in the Kathua minor’s rape and murder case on Monday submitted a petition in the Jammu and Kashmir high court seeking a fresh CBI probe and invalidation of the J&K police crime branch investigation.

The petitioners, Sub-Inspector Anand Dutta and Special Police Officer (SPO) Deepak Khajuria, through their counsel Veenu Gupta, pleaded that the probe in the case had been transferred from one team to another thrice. First, the case was given to local police, then to crime branch and finally to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the crime branch.
The petition questioned the inclusion of a policeman, who was allegedly involved in a rape and murder case and later acquitted by a trial court, a few years ago, in the SIT. Calling the crime branch probe “incorrect”, the petition said there were series discrepancies between the postmortem and the forensic reports.
The petitioners also challenged the crime branch claim that the eight-year-old nomad girl was held captive in ‘Devasthan’ (prayer hall) and alleged that the SIT had “planted the evidence.” They also alleged that the main aim of the crime branch investigation was to facilitate the encroachment of government land by the nomadic tribes.
The body of the minor was recovered from a forest in Hiranagar of Kathua district on January 17, a week after she went missing. The crime branch SIT has arrested eight people from the majority community for her rape and murder. Jammu bar association opposed the arrests, accusing the crime branch of communal bias against the natives of the region.