ASIFA RAPE INCIDENT - Everything you should know about the Charge Sheet.

In Depth: Asifa rape & murder case, know, crime, evidence, police and Hindu-Muslim colors.

Before reading about the case you need to know about the child, Asifa and from where does she belongs. So, basically Asifa was 8 years old child from the Gujjar Bakarwal community who are mainly nomads and whose main source of living is herding sheep, goats and horses.

Who are Bakarwals?

• The Bakarwal community is a Muslim pastoral tribe situated in Jammu and Kashmir. They form the third largest cómmunity in the state.
• Bakarwal herd sheep and goats and horses as living.
• Bakarwals are often undertake hundreds of kilometres long journey with their cattle every summer to Kashmir and Ladakh and back to Jammu in the winters.
• Muslim Gujjars of J&K continue to follow the Gotra system with names of Gotras being the same as that among the Hindus.

The innocent soul, Asifa.

Now, What is the case?

• On January 17,2018- The body of an 8 year old, Asifa was found in the nearby forests near Rasana village, Hiranagar. She had been missing for a week.
• She had been abducted and brutally gang-raped.
• She had been drugged so that she could not cry for help.

When this case came infront of everyone and the accused were arrested by the police which led to protests by some of the hindu community members of Kathua and Jammu forming Hindu Ekta Manch supporting the rape accused in the name of religion as all the accused were hindus , leading to communalisation of the crime & entire issue. And all these incidents of defending the rape accused were backed by a political party namely Bjp whose two cabinet minister of Kashmir also walked in the protest march held in support of all the rape accused. Those who are protesting in defence of the rape accused has to say that this case is registered only to malign the image of the hindus and no such rape incident happened as all the accused are hindus and the victim is a muslim girl form Gujjar Bakarwal Community of J&K. By doing these sorts of nasty game, they just tries to give this case fully a communal and political colour which can’t be accepted at all.

After the incompetence of local police and Hindu Ekta Manch’s protest in support of the accused, the administration handed over this case to the Crime Branch to run a fair investigation. And after two months of investigation, the crime branch filed a charge sheet.

What the charge sheet filed by Crime Branch has to say?

According to the charge sheet filed by crime branch –

• The accused who hatched the conspiracy of abduction and murder - Sanjhi Ram, a retired revenue official - the mastermind(Prime Accused).
• His son Vishal, a B.Sc Agriculture student,
• His nephew, Subham Sangra, a juvenile,
• Parvesh Verma, an acquaintance of sanjhi ram.

Rape accused.

Two special officers –

• Deepak khajuria(Prime Accused).
• Surrender kumar.

Some of the reports also suggest that the juvenile, Subham Sangra also being expelled from school for his indecent character.

Two other officials:-

• Head Constable Tilak Raj and
• Sub Inspector Anand Dutta.

Were involved in the destruction of crucial evidence in exchange of huge sum from Sanjhi ram. They destroyed many crucial evidence by washing the clothes of the victim before sending them to forensic laboratory and also created false evidence at the scene.

Reports say, Sanjhi ram, the prime accused want to instill heavy fear among the Gujjar bakarwal community by doing such. So that this community shifts from kathua to any other place and the prominence of sanjhi ram and his family remain stable on that land.

So, in total there are 8 persons who got arrested in this case.

What Hindu Ekta Manch has to say?

Hindu Ekta Manch which was formed on January 23 by some local hindus to protest in support of the rape accused shamelessly used the term ‘HINDU’ and also illegally used the Tricolour Indian National Flag in their unlawful protest. According to ekta manch, police intentionally arresting the accused to taint the image of hindus as all the accused are hindus and for that they are protesting to release the accused. Whereas, the juvenile, Subham Sangra clearly narrated what the whole story is and also mentioned that his uncle, Sanjhi ram was the master-mind of this heinous crime during police interrogation.

Unlawful march of hindu ekta manch.

But, notably when this case handed over to Crime Branch then:-

• In March – Most of the accused were arrested.
• In April – Protests spread over much of Kathua, with hindu ekta manch arguing and make allegations that the police officers of the crime branch involved in the case are muslims, thus cannot be trusted.
• 10^th April – Lawyers of Bar association tried to stop the filing of charge sheet in the court and they also called for strike.

When the full investigation being done on march regarding this case, then these details came into limelight:-

• Asifa had gone missing on January 10 while grazing horses in the forest.
• Accused juvenile, Subham sangra abducted the girl on the pretext of helping her find her horses.
• The day after, parents of the girl went to Devisthan(where the temple is situated) and asked Sanjhi Ram about her whereabouts. He said she may have gone to a relative's house.
• The juvenile, a school dropout, turned out to be a major player in the abduction and murder –even calling his cousin from Meerut to satisfy his lust.
• Vishal, after his cousin’s call, reached Rasana from Meerut and raped the sedated girl along with the juvenile and others.
• Khajuria (Special Police officer) told others to wait before killing the child as "he wanted to rape her one last time before she’s been killed."
• After that, they killed her brutally, torturing her in a very inhuman way, firstly by strangling her and then to confirm her death, they crushed her head by stones and then they threw her body in the nearby jungle which is approximately 100metres  away from the temple where she had been abducted.

Political backing to the accused:-

Bjp cabinet ministers of J&K namely Lal Singh and Chander Prakash, actively took part in the rally organised by Hindu Ekta Manch in support of the kathua gang-rape accused. When the public pressure against this unlawful march increased on the J&K govt, then these two ministers submitted their resignation to the J&K party chief on 13^th April.

Lal Singh(left) & Chander Prakash(right).

Asifa’s parents migration from their home out of fear:-

The parents of Asifa quietly abandoned their home in Rasana village out of fear of their lives late on 10^th april, after the Jammu Bar Association called for a strike to protest in defence of the accused.

Issues regarding this case:-

Humanity:- 

This case breaks the extreme limit of inhumanity as the child had been continuously gang-raped for seven long days by giving her sedatives, destroyed her uterus and eventually strangled to death.

Her father said in one statement that sometimes she couldn’d even differ between her left and right and those monsters did such inhuman thing with this innocent girl. Humanity itself is ashamed by those monster’s deeds.

Religious harmony of the whole region:- 

The communal harmony that entire region is at stake and some parties trying to break that harmony giving this case a communal colour.

Why is politics happening on the issue?

Rasana village is a Hindu heritage area and in the jungle, Gujjar and Bakarwal muslims come with shepherds. The child was from the same family. Hindu ekta manch also say that the land is being occupied and the animals are going to the farm and these nomad Bakarwals were thinking to settle down there forever. But, this settling down and sharing of local resources were not at all acceptable by Sanjhi ram and his family as they thought Bakarwal’s settling down may affect their prominence and to teach them a lesson he did this heinous crime so that this Bakarwal community shift from kathua out of fear as per allegations. And, also some political parties giving it a political colour for their sake of vote bank politics.

Jammu Govt:-

After taking Hindu-Muslim colors of kidnapping, rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kathua district of Jammu, this story is not only in the national news, but also in the headlines. The move to prevent the crime branch from charging files through lawyers in Kathua on Hindu-Muslim basis is being condemned on every side. Now the state's chief Mehbooba Mufti has announced that there will be no barrier to justice in any way. They say that justice will be done in this case by any means.

My view:-

I personally want those rapists to be given capital punishment i.e. hanged till death forming a Fast Track Court as this type of inhumanity can’t be tolerated and by hanging those criminals the country should set an example for the future. And, if by reading this whole case anyone’s blood doesn’t boil then either he/she is not a human or humanity is long died in him/her.

Hang the rapists.