Jammu/April,10: Jammu and Kashmir Police Tuesday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against lawyers of Kathua Bar Association for preventing the Crime Branch from filing a charge sheet against accused in Asifa rape and murder case in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Kathua Monday this week.
DGP Jammu and Kashmir SP Vaid confirmed that an FIR has been registered in the case.
“An FIR has been registered against Kathua bar association lawyers under sections 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty, 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint) of RPC,” said SSP Kathua Suleiman Choudhary.
On Monday, lawyers in Kathua staged a protest and prevented the Crime Branch from filing charge-sheet against the seven accused in the horrific rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa Bani.
In its investigation, the Crime Branch has established that Asifa was raped and murdered by a few residents of Rasana and adjoining village to force the Bakerwal community to which Asifa belonged to leave the area.
Seven persons, including SPO Deepak Khajuria, SPO Surinder Verma, Sub Inspector Anand Dutta, Head constable Tilak Raj, Retired Patwari Sanji Ram and his son Vishal Kumar, and a juvenile have been arrested in the case.
Sanji Ram, a retired revenue officer, is the custodian of the Devasthan temple where Asifa was held captive for a week.
The investigation has concluded that police sub-inspector Anand Datta and head constable Tilak Raj were involved in destroying crucial evidence about the crime.
The duo was arrested after it was established that they had washed Asifa’s clothes before sending them for forensic investigations.
According to the Crime Branch officials, the viscera report of the deceased has established that she was drugged by the accused so that she would not cry for help.
“The viscera report is positive for clonazepam. This means that the victim was drugged by the accused,” they said. The medical report, according to them, has also revealed that the cause of Asifa’s death was asphyxiation.
