Yusuf Jameel
Srinagar, July 4: The rape and murder of two young Kashmiri women, allegedly by uniformed men in the south Kashmir town of Shopian on May 30, took a new turn on Saturday with the Jammu and Kashmir high court directing that the victims’ bodies be exhumed to obtain DNA samples.
A high court division bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Gosh and Justice Muhammad Yaqub Mir, ordered the exhumations after noting that the DNA report was missing and that the initial post-mortem was not conducted properly.
The court also directed that no one, including Central Reserve Police Force personnel or those of the local police, could leave Shopian town, where the rapes and killings took place, without the permission of the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the police. It also asked mobile service providers in the region to provide details of calls made from the spot and sought a list of all civilian and security forces personnel present at the time of the incident.
The court directed the SIT, headed by SP Shah Din Malik, to interrogate and carry out narco-analysis tests, if necessary, on four suspended police officials and two witnesses, and that the nomadic Gujjar family reportedly forced to leave the area by unknown uniformed men during the intervening night of May 30 and 31 be traced. It asked the SIT to submit a progress report every week to the court.
The court intervened in the case after being petitioned by the Kashmir Bar Council. While ordering the exhumation of the bodies for a fresh post-mortem examination and collection of DNA samples it, however, said the consent of the family must be sought before the bodies are exhumed.
Nilofar Shakeel, 22, who was pregnant, and her 17-year-old sister-in-law Aasiya Jan were allegedly waylaid while returning home from the family’s apple orchard in Shopian on May 30 evening and were later raped and murdered in cold blood. The Kashmir Valley has been simmering ever since the women’s corpses were found floating in a shallow stream hours after their disappearance. The autopsy report and forensic investigations at an official laboratory confirmed they had been raped.
Locals allege that members of a police encampment in the orchard neighbourhood are involved in the crime. A judicial inquiry is underway and Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has committed to finding out the truth.
The unrest triggered by the double rape and murder has already claimed the lives of two protesters in police firings and left more than 400 people injured. Shopian continues to be shut and witnesses street protests almost daily.
The court said a team of doctors nominated by Dr Shahida Mir, the principal of Srinagar’s Government Medical College, should conduct the post-mortem examination of the exhumed bodies. The Justice Muzaffar Jan Commission had in its interim report found several police officers, including then Shopian SP Javaid Iqbal Muttu and a Forensic Science Laboratory official, culpable for the loss of evidence in the case.
"This is a sensational matter. Every man on the street, irrespective of caste or creed, is praying for the culprits to be caught," Justice Gosh observed. The court appointed inspector-general of police (CID) Farooq Ahmad as special officer for the inquiry and DIG Rouf-ul-Hassan as his deputy to monitor the proceedings of the SIT inquiring into the case. DIG Farooq Ahmad is at present carrying out an internal departmental probe into alleged negligence of duty by four suspended police officials, including former Shopian SP Javaid Muttu.
