Kathua chargesheet: In J-K child gangrape, rituals, a chilling invite and a police cover-up

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Kathua chargesheet: In J-K child gangrape, rituals, a chilling invite and a police cover-up

The chargesheet states that Ram masterminded the conspiracy to kidnap and, later rape and kill the girl. It states that he made SPO Khajuria and the juvenile a “part of the conspiracy and assigned them tasks separately and individually”.

THE EIGHT-YEAR-OLD was gangraped thrice inside the Devasthan or prayer hall, after the mastermind had “performed rituals”. One of the rapists was called from Meerut to “satisfy his lust”. The girl was confined using sedatives, then strangled and hit on the head twice with a stone — “in order to make sure” she was dead. But not before another accused, a police personnel, asked the others to “wait because he wanted to rape” her one last time.

And all this, to “dislodge” a group of Bakherwal Muslim nomads from Rasana village in Kathua near Jammu.

These are just some of the chilling details in the 18-page chargesheet filed Monday by J&K Police’s Crime Branch against the eight accused in the rape and murder of the girl who went missing from near her house in Rasana on January 10 — her body was found seven days later in the forests nearby.

In the days that followed, the chargesheet states, the accused paid Rs 1.5 lakh as a bribe to local policemen who knew where the girl was kept and helped cover up the crime initially.

The killing had sparked outrage across J&K with the government handing over the case to the Crime Branch following protests from the Bakherwal community. The case took a communal turn in Kathua, where an outfit called Hindu Ekta Manch was set up by politicians in support of the accused. Among those who backed the Manch were Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, two BJP ministers in Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s Cabinet.


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