Jammu Bar Association demands CBI probe into Kathua rape case

Jammu : The Jammu Bar Association on Thursday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-led inquiry into the Kathua rape case, contending that the probe by the Jammu and Kashmir Police's Crime Branch was not fair.

"We have always maintained that the guilty should be punished and the fair probe should be carried out, that is why we want the case to be handed over to CBI. We have concrete evidence that the crime branch's investigation is not fair and we believe, it would not have been able to deliver justice to the victim," Jammu Bar Association President BS Slathia said at a press conference, adding that there was a conspiracy to divide Jammu society on communal lines.

Slathia further denied that Wednesday's bandh was over the rape. He said the bandh was for two things- removal of Rohingya from Jammu, and withdrawal of minutes of the meeting of Tribal Affairs Department chaired by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on February 14.

In January this year, an eight-year-old girl belonging to a nomadic Muslim tribe in Kathua district in Jammu and Kashmir was allegedly abducted, drugged, raped, tortured and killed.

On Wednesday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police filed an FIR against the lawyers who tried to prevent Crime Branch officers from filing a charge sheet in a court on Monday in connection with the rape and murder of the girl in Kathua.