Srinagar: Jammu Kashmir police have appointed two Sikh police officers to check polarization between communities in the wake of brutal rape and murder of eight-year-old nomadic Bakherwal Muslim girl in Kathua.
The Quint quoted a leading national newspaper as saying “the J&K Police want the Crime Branch case to be represented by Bhupinder Singh and Harminder Singh”. The report further quoted the report and said: “the police want to have prosecuting officers from their own ranks but from a neutral faith to avoid further communal division”.
As per the officials, the investigation is taking a communal turn as few members of the Crime Branch investigation team “happen to be Muslims. Ironically, the SSP monitoring the probe is a Kashmiri Pandit”.
Eight people so far are arrested in the case, however, Jammu Bar Association has opposed the action alleging “targeting of minority Dogras”. The act has been called a full strategised crime in the filed charge sheet to remove the minority community from the region.
The dead body of the victim was recovered from Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the area on January 10. She was kept a hostage in a temple and was raped multiple times and eventually murdered.