Srinagar: In a new twist in the Shopian
rape and murder case, the Kashmir High Court Bar Association
on Wednesday decided not to appear in any hearing, accusing the CBI
of a "cover up".
"The CBI has been brought to close the chapter. We
had expressed these apprehensions right from the beginning.
We have no faith in the CBI," the association president Abdul
Qayoom said when the hearing of the case began.
Qayoom said the Association, which had filed a
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the alleged rape and
murder of Neelofar Jan and her teenaged sister-in-law Aasiya
Jan, was dissociating itself from the case.
"We are dissociating ourselves from the case and
we will not appear in this case from here onwards. We leave it
to the Lordships whether to continue hearing this case or stop
it here," he said.
The Bar president said the Government and the CBI
had violated two orders of the Division Bench by handing over
the case for investigations to the CBI and bringing doctors
from Delhi to conduct the exhumation.
"Although the Bench had left it to the discretion
of the Government to chose the investigating agency, the court
had not granted permission for handing over the case to CBI.
"The CBI on its part did not seek permission from the
court to bring in experts from Delhi when an earlier order had
clearly mentioned that Principal Government Medical College,
Srinagar will nominate the forensic experts if the family
members of the victims allowed exhumation," he added.
Referring to media reports, which said that the hymen
of Aasiya was intact and she was not raped, Qayoom said both
the women were raped and murdered.
The Bar president referred to the opinion of an
AIIMS doctor which said that uterus does not decompose quickly
but after three months it is difficult to ascertain anything
as the vaginal discharges cannot last that long.
Advocate General Mohammad Ishaq Qadri and Assistant
Solicitor General Anil Bhan, appearing for the state and the
CBI respectively, refutted Qayoom's charges.
"The case has been handed over to the CBI only
after court permitted the Government to change the
investigating agency. The CBI is investigating the case
properly. It is only to malign the premier investigating
agency," Qadri said.
After hearing the arguments, the Division Bench
comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Mohammad
Yaqoob Mir said the court will continue to hear the case
irrespective of Bar Association's decision.
"We will continue the case till the mystery
(surrounding the death of the two women) is resolved,”
Ghosh said.
The CBI has been directed to file a brief report by
October 13 about the persons present at the time of exhumation
and the reasons for them being there. The agency was asked
to include in the report as to when and how the consent for
the exhumation was obtained.
The court asked the CBI not to reveal any case details
to the media and to the people who are not connected with the
investigation.
17-year-old Asiya was found dead along with her
sister-in-law 22-year-old Neelofar near a stream in Shopian,
52 kms from here, on May 30, a day after they went missing
from their orchard. Their deaths had led to 47 days of protest
in the town with locals alleging that security personnel were
responsible for the crime.
The CBI took over the investigation into the case on
September 17 after special investigation team of local police
and one-man inquiry commission failed to identify the
culprits.
The court fixed October 13 as the next date of
hearing. "I am not concerned with the findings of the post
mortem at this stage but want the names of the persons who
collected the samples of the bodies of the two victims", Ghosh
said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 23:49