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CBI clean chit in rape and
murder case may rock Kashmir again
WSN Network
 Srinagar: The
rape and murder case of two women in Shipian in Kashmir valley has
taken a new turn altogether as the CBI has given a cleamn chit to
four police officers arrested earlier and said the two women were
neither raped nor murdered and had died due to drowning.
The agency filed
a chargesheet against 13 people — six doctors, five lawyers and two
civilians — for allegedly fabricating evidence and misleading people
and said the four police officers must be discharged “since they are
not liable for any criminal prosecution”.
CBI counsel Anil
Bhan informed the High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice
Barin Ghosh that the women, 22-year-old Neelofar and 17-year-old
Asiya, had drowned in a stream.
The CBI
chargesheet underlined the mishandling of the case by the Omar
Abdullah government and the one-man Jan Commission which went after
the four Shopian police officers — SP Javed Iqbal Mattoo, DSP Rohit
Basgotra, Inspector Shafiq Ahmad and Sub Inspector Gazi Abdul
Kareem-who were arrested on the charge that they allegedly tried to
destroy evidence. The CBI investigation found nothing adverse
against the police officers.
A chargesheet
has been filed against six doctors — Nighat Shaheen, Gulam Qadir
Sofi, Maqbool Mir, Gulam Mohd Paul, Bilal Ahmad Dalal, Nazia Hassan
— for allegedly framing an incorrect document and for fabricating
evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence. They
were also charged with preparing false vaginal slides.
The family of
the two women and the Majlis Mushawarat, which had been spearheading
the Shopian case campaign, rejected the CBI findings. They even
prevented the CBI from making a powerpoint presentation of the
investigation in open court — this was later shown before the media.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah refused comment, saying the government
was yet to see the CBI report.
Reacting to the
development, the Opposition PDP claimed that the probe was fixed and
was aimed at shielding the culprits rather than bringing them to
book. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “It now appears all the
investigation was done to prove as true the initial verdict of
drowning by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.”
The
Majlis-e-Mushawarat that has been spearheading the agitation in the
Shopian case has also rejected the CBI findings, submitted in the
J&K High Court.
“It is a 68-page
report and we have not gone through it yet. We will raise our
objections only once we go through it,” Mohammad Shafi Khan, the
spokesman of the Majlis, said. “But the conclusion drawn by the CBI
that the two women died because of drowning is not acceptable to
us.”
In a statement
issued on Monday, Mehbooba said, “The inability of the government to
properly investigate the death of the two women will not only define
for all times the Omar Abdullah government but would further erode
the faith of the people in institutions of the state at local and
central levels.” She hoped the HC, “the last hope of the people”,
would ensure that justice is done to the family of the victims.
Mehbooba felt it
was ironical that the family, witnesses, lawyers and “those who
wanted justice” found themselves in the dock now.
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The new CBI chargesheet:
* No evidence
to substantiate charges of rape and murder.
* Death of
Neelofar Jan and Asiya Jan due to drowning.
* The Shopian
team of doctors falsely mentioned in their postmortem that
Asiya’s hymen was torn. The AIIMS team found Asiya Jan’s hymen
intact.
* In case of
Neelofar Jan, the AIIMS team found no injury on her body.
* Earlier
postmortem falsely mentioned sexual assault in case of Neelofar
and falsely mentioned, in case of Asiya, haemorrhagic shock due
to bleeding.
* The
investigation established that the six doctors conspired to
defame, discredit and cause injury to police and security
personnel and get them wrongfully convicted of a capital offence
by creating false reports and fudging glass slides said to
contain vaginal smears.
* The five
advocates and two civilians induced, assaulted and threatened
witnesses to make false statements implicating the police and
security forces in a false case of rape and murder.
* On the four
arrested police officers, investigation disclosed that their
(police) findings of drowning and carrying out of inquest
proceedings were justified. The investigation did not reveal
malafide on their part and since they are not liable for any
criminal prosecution, they ought to be discharged.
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16
December 2009
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