File picture of Asifa
Press Correspondent
Srinagar: The police have filed charge sheet against seven accused in connection with the rape and murder of eight year Kathua girl Asifa Bano in the court of law.
“We have filed chargesheet against seven persons in the court of law,” Inspector General crime, Syed Ahfadul Mujtaba told Kashmir Reader. “The eighth accused is a juvenile. We are in the process of producing chargesheet against him”.
Another senior police offical said the crime branch has conducted a very meticulous investigations and collected irrefutable evidence to conclude the case.
“All the eight persons, including the juvenile have hatched the criminal conspiracy to kill and rape Asifa,” offical said. “We are satisfied with the investigation and are fully confident that the accused will be successfully tried in the court of the law”.
The police offical identfied the accused as Sanji Ram, his son Vishal who is a Special Police officer (SPO), Deepak Khajuria (SPO), Surinder verma and Ramesh Kumar.
The crime branch has found another accused in the crime an underage boy, Shubham, who has been sent to the juvenile home.
Sources in the crime branch said other than that, the crime branch has recorded statements of hundred witnesses. Besides, they said forensic reports, establishing the crime, have been received while one DNA profiling of an accused is expected soon.
Detailing out the motives of the crime, the sources said the rape and murder of eight year old Asifa was carried out to incuclate fear among the nomadic community and drive them away from their ancestral lands.
According to the offical figures, scheduled tribes, mostly muslims, make up nearly 14 per cent of the Jammu and Kashmir’s population and are demanding implementation of the act, which will give them exclusive rights on the forest land in view of the repeated allegations of harassment and forcible dispossesssion of forest areas by right wing hindu groups.
The eight year old girl was first kidnapped when she was shepherding her horses at Rasna village of Kathua on January 10 this year. Later, her disfigured body was found on January 17. During the police investigations it was established she was raped and then murdered by the criminals. It was also established that some policemen helped in destoying the evidence of the crime who were later arrested including a sub inspector rank police officer.
The forensic reports earlier had establised that the hair strands confirmed that Asifa was kept captive inside the temple after being raped and subsequently strangulated. The hair strands were recovered from devistan temple Hiranagar after one of the accused confirmed that she was held there. She was made unconsious using a seductive medicine.