Hyderabad takes to streets to protest Kathua, Unnao rapes

Hyderabad: Students, activists, intellectuals, people from civil society groups, professionals and mediapersons hold a protest at Necklace Road here against the “slumber” of Narendra Modi led BJP government over the brutal rape and murder of 8-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua and Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao and to seek justice for the victims.

The protest followed by candle-light vigil on Friday was called at a short notice and saw people converging at Indira Gandhi in sizeable numbers to express their support. Among the activists Jaswin Jairaj, Sangamitra Malik, Sara Mathews, Jaya Laxmi, Namrata Jaiswal, Major Quadri of Help Hyderabad, Khalid Rasool Khan, Khalida Parveen, Hayat Hussain Habeeb, Sanaullah Khan, Aslam Abdul Rahman and hundreds other.

Speaking to Siasat, President Help Hyderabad Major SGM Quadri demanded Bar Council of India to cancel registrations of the Devil’s Advocates shamelessly led by the President of Jammu Bar Association. “What a shame instead of protecting, the lawyers of Kathua & Jammu were obstructing justice? He added.

Major further said that “the Judge who allegedly took hours to register the FIR is as much a disgrace to Indian Judiciary as the Jammu goons in black gowns are a blot on Indian Judicial system.

Parents brought innumerable girls of the Asifa’s age holding placard that reads ‘I am also 8 years old. Assure me of my safety and protection please’, while other calls for #JusticeForAsifa and #NotMyIndia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prhk_anxIlw

People gathered in the protest says that there were repeated incidents of violence, rape and murder of women in the country. “We want the government to take action. Today, women are feeling insecure to move out of their houses. Somewhere a child, a woman is raped, killed and we want that the government should resolve this. The women of the country should feel safe,” a protester said. The protest lasted nearly four hours.

The eight-year-old girl allegedly raped by six men, who had held her in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district for a week in January, was kept sedated and sexually assaulted once again before she was bludgeoned to death, reveals the chargesheet in the case. The abduction, rape and killing of the Bakherwal girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the Muslim nomadic community (Bakerwal) from the area, reveals the 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch in the chief judicial magistrate’s court here Monday.

 

The renowned TV anchor explained the incident during his Prime Time on NDTV on Wednesday. “Where we are going, before knowing what we have come to, we should stop and see. In the case of rape in Jammu’s Kathua, our society has taken its own mask. “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” slogans turns into “Beti Hatao Neta Bachao”. If you hear about rape with an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, then you will be sure that you are filling up in a dead time.

Not only this, when the police came to file a charge sheet in the case of rape, the police station was encircled and Jai Shri Ram’s slogans raised. The Jammu and Kashmir Police filed an FIR against lawyers of Jammu who tried to prevent Crime Branch officers from filing a charge sheet in a court on Monday in connection with the Kathua rape and murder case.

A special team of the crime branch has made a case of conspiracy, kidnapping, wrongful confinement, gang rape, murder and destruction of evidence against eight accused, which include: Sanjhi Ram, the suspected mastermind, who is a former revenue official and local strongman; his son Vishal Kumar, a college student; Ram’s 16-year-old nephew who is the juvenile, and his friend Parvesh Kumar; Special Police Officers (SPOs) of Hiranagar police station Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Kumar; Sub Inspector of Hiranagar police station Anand Dutta, who was also investigating officer in the case, and Head Constable Tilak Raj.

It lists the caretaker of the Devisthan, a small temple, in Rassana village in Kathua, about 90 km from here, as the main conspirator behind the abduction, rape and killing.

Sanji Ram was allegedly joined by special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, Ram’s nephew, a juvenile, and his son Vishal Jangotra alias “Shamma”. The chargesheet also names investigating officers head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs 4 lakh from Ram and destroyed crucial evidence.

Ravish Kumar explore that chargesheet and explains that the incident of January 11, six days before the child’s body was recovered from the Rassana forest on January 17, the juvenile phoned his cousin Jangotra and asked him to return from Meerut where he was studying if he wanted to “satisfy his lust”.

The document lays bare the larger conspiracy to instill fear in the Bakerwal community and explains in chilling detail how it was carried out. The eight-year-old had gone missing on January 10 while grazing horses in the forest. Investigators said the accused abducted the girl on the pretext of helping her find her horses.

According to the chargesheet, the accused gave the girl sedatives to make her unconscious while holding her in captivity at the Devisthan’. The juvenile, a school dropout, turned out to be the main player in the abduction and murder, raping the child repeatedly along with Jangotra and Khajuria.

“Khajuria lured the juvenile to kidnap the girl on the assurance that he will help him in passing the board examination (through cheating). Subsequently, he shared the plan, worked out by Ram and Khajuria, with Parvesh Kumar alias ‘Mannu’, his close friend and asked for his help in executing the plan,” the chargesheet stated.

Ram and his nephew performed the usual rituals to avoid suspicion. It was on Ram’s direction that the child was removed from the temple and taken to a a culvert in the nearby forest by Mannu, Jangotra and the juvenile with the intention of eliminating her. According to the investigation, Khajuria also reached the spot and told them to wait as “he wanted to rape her before she is killed”. The chargesheet said the girl was once again gangraped and later killed by the juvenile.

“The juvenile hit the girl twice with a stone on her head and later dumped her body in the forest after their plan to throw the body in a canal could not materialize due to failure to arrange a vehicle,” it said.

The investigation explained in detail how the accused police officials destroyed crucial evidence by washing the clothes of the victim before sending them to the forensic laboratory and created false evidence at the scene.

Sanjiv Bhatt takes on hypocrites

Former Indian Police Service officer from Gujarat, Sanjiv Bhatt who is known for his role in filing an affidavit in the SC against the then Gujarat CM and now PM, Narendra Modi, concerning his alleged participation in the 2002 Gujarat riots; has said ‘what would have happened if the situation was reversed in the Kathua rape case’ and the criminals were Muslims.

Bhatt tweeted on Wednesday “Just imagine how Indian media and public would have reacted to a Hindu girl being abducted, abused, raped and killed by several Muslim men while being hidden inside a mosque? All Hindus who are silent about this ghastly crime that has been committed in their name are complicit.”

Siasat Web Team