If the culprits in the rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa are ever punished, credit will go to two Kashmiri Pandits: a police officer and a lawyer.
Amid attempts to communalise the horrific crime, Ramesh Kumar Jalla and Deepika Thusoo Singh, both Kashmiri Pandits, stand apart.
The 59-year-old Jalla was supervising investigation of the case after it was entrusted to the Crime Branch following protests in the Assembly over Asifa’s murder.
Asifa, an eight-year old Bakerwal girl was gang-raped and murdered in January this year in her native village of Rassana, Kathua. Her dead body was found seven days after she was abducted.
Jalla, senior superintendent of police (Crime Branch) Jammu, is the man who uncovered the horrific crime.
“I would regularly discuss progress of the case with SIT and tell them how to proceed ahead,” he said.
In these months, Jalla himself visited different places to piece together evidences and connect the missing links.
Jalla hails from Balgarden, Srinagar, and his father, late D N Jalla, also a police officer, died in 1984 an accident near Sangam while escorting cavalcade of Arun Nehru, a former Union minister
Jalla has served in almost all the parts of Valley—old City Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam, Anantnag—in the past three decades.
“I have never been treated as a Kashmir Pandit in Kashmir or Jammu. I have always been treated as policeman,” he said.
He was leading the CB team that was prevented by local lawyers from filing charge-sheet against the accused.
“They (lawyers) tried to harass us by raising slogans against the Crime Branch but we sorted out the issue and filed charge sheet against the accused,” he said.
Jalla and Peerzada Naveed who was heading the Special Investigation Team probing the case, have been widely hailed on social media for cracking the case.
“My salute to Ramesh Kumar Jalla and Naveed Peerzada for cracking the Kathua case and staying steadfast under pressure. A Kashmir Pandit and a Kashmiri Muslim. Kudos!” wrote one twitter user.
Inspector general of police (Crime Branch) Afhad-ul-Mujataba said officers of the agency worked very hard to crack the case.
“It was a difficult case because vital evidences had been destroyed. But despite these difficulties we cracked the case and arrested all the accused,” he said.
Braving all odds and defying threats, Depika Thusoo Singh, a Kashmiri Pandit, has waged a legal battle to provide justice to Asifa. She is pursuing the case on behalf of the victim’s family in Jammu High Court that is monitoring investigation of the case.
She has faced threats and abuses from Jammu lawyers who are seeking transfer of the case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“On April 4, when I was there in High court, Salathia (Bar President) told me ‘I have the means to stop you,’” Deepika said.