On Kathua girl’s rape and murder, VK Singh says ‘we have failed her as humans’

The eight-year-old girl was gang-raped thrice by her abductors, including a special police officer, inside a temple.

Union minister V K Singh on Thursday expressed distress at the Kathua gang-rape and murder incident which has sparked outrage.

“We as humans” have failed the eight-year-old girl, but she will not be denied justice, Singh said.

An eight-year-old girl from Kashmir’s nomadic Bakarwal community had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village in Kathua on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area.

A Special Investigation Team formed to probe the incident has arrested eight people, including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destruction of evidence.

A chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police said abduction, rape and killing of the girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority community from the area.

The eight-year-old girl was kidnapped while grazing horses near her home, held captive in a temple, sedated and raped repeatedly before being killed in a plot hatched by the main suspect, the chargesheet said.

The rape has polarised the state with the local bar association calling for a bandh against what it termed the “targeting of minority Dogras”, while the Valley saw protests demanding justice for the deceased.