Srinagar, September 11
For police officials arrested for allegedly destroying evidence in the Shopian rape-and-murder case were granted bail by the high court today.
The high court ordered that four cops — SP Javid Iqbal, DSP Rohit Baskotra, Inspector Shafiq Ahmad and Sub-Inspector Qazi Abdul Karim — could not visit Shopian without the prior permission of the government. Soon after the order, Justice Sunil Hali, who had reserved his judgement on their bail plea, ordered bail for the cops against a bond of Rs 50,000 each.
They were arrested on July 15 on the orders of a high court’s Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Barin Ghosh, but the special investigation team (SIT) miserably failed to find any evidence linking them with the crime, something which Justice Hali noted time and again as arguments on their bail plea unfolded before him in previous weeks.
Advocate General Ishaq Qadri had argued before the court that the arrested policemen could be responsible for even the fudged vaginal swabs of two victims and hinted at their possible involvement in their rape and murder as well. However, the court had observed that the SIT had done nothing to probe the involvement of doctors, who were concerned with collecting the vaginal swabs and sending them to forensic labs.
Justice Hali had also observed that the SIT’s investigation had remained confined to questioning the four police official and it was not expanded.
The government has now asked the CBI to probe the case. Mian Qayoom, president of the Kashmir High Court Bar Association, had also argued against the grant of bail to the accused.
Aseem Mahrotra, a Delhi-based lawyer, who represented SP Iqbal and DSP Baskotra, had said the government was making his clients scapegoats to hide its failure in solving the mystery and highlighted a series of blunders committed by doctors in conducting the victim’s post-mortem and collecting forensic samples. He wondered why the SIT did not question any doctor and went after his clients despite the absence of any evidence.
If family members of the policemen were visibly delighted, Shopian reacted with angry protests over the imminent release of the four cops, who were projected as main villains by a section of politicians, joined by even the government later, and the Majlis-e-Mashawarat, a consultative body spearheading the protests in Shopian.
The majlis has announced a shutdown in Kashmir tomorrow.
Two women, Nilofar (22) and Asiya Jan (17), were found dead in a rivulet in Shopian on May 30 and many alleged the involvement of the security forces in the incident, later turned into a case of rape and murder by the police.
A judicial probe had indicted these cops for destruction of evidence following which they were booked.
