The recent rape and murder of a 8 years old girl Asifa, from a nomad family settled in Rasana village of Hiranagar Kathua, shocked the public in general and members of the Group of Concerned Citizens Jammu and Kashmir in particular. The girl was first kidnapped, raped and then murdered by the alleged criminals. She went missing on January 10th 2018 and his dead body was recovered on 17th of January 2018, after seven days from the date of her kidnapping. A group of women consisting of journalist, academia, writers, retired college principals and social activists, sent a petition to J&K C.M. and others, as an initiative, demanding justice for Asifa. The group expressed a great anguish over unjustifiable delay in the investigation of the case.
The members of the civil society were concerned for the initial mishandling of the case and the delay in the registration of case of such heinous nature. The news reports had pointed out that there was a deliberate delay in registering the missing report and starting the manhunt to trace the girl. Basically the local police had not taken missing report seriously which complicated the whole issue. Had the missing report been entered in the daily diary of police station on the first day of lodging the complaint and accordingly search made for the recovery of the girl well in time, the accused persons would have got very little time to commit such a grave offense as the autopsy report indicated that the girl was alive till 16th of January. May be due to the inefficiency and non-seriousness on the part of local police, must have caused delay in registering and mishandling of the investigation of the case. The worst of it is that the valuable evidence was caused to disappear during the course of investigation by junior officials of police station. There are number of circulars which already stand issued by the senior police officers from time to time, containing the instruction that the investigation of such important cases are supposed to be taken up by the SHOs of the police stations himself under the close supervision of the concerned SDPOs/DSPs. It is embarrassing if the investigation of case was entrusted to junior most official of the police station. It is a lesson for others that missing report should never be taken non-seriously by the I/C police station as it involves a human life. The missing report of a person, during the course of inquiry could turn to be as kidnapping/abduction or heinous crime like rape and murder. If it is true that SPO was entrusted with the task of tracing the missing girl and look out notice was issued after her burial, a departmental enquiry needs to be initiated against the SHO concerned besides his attachment to district police lines by concerned district police chief. The professionalism at the police station level seems to have faded away in certain cases. The crime of such heinous nature was also politicized by some of the workers of various political parties.
Even few members of the cabinet belonging to a particular party were seen participating in the protest march against the arrest of accused persons and demanding the transfer of the case to CBI. This has happened for the first time that protest march was taken out in support of the accused persons in a rape/murder case. After the investigation was taken up by the State Crime branch, the case started moving on the right track and truth came to light. J&K Police, no doubt, was once known as the best and most professional police of the country and has a distinction of having received the “Colors” from the then President of India late APG Abdul Kalam in a function at Udhampur in 2003. The J&K police force is still proud of having, some of the best professional officers working in the department. Kudos to the Crime Branch for finalizing the investigation of the case successfully and fairly. They did not even spare their colleagues for their lapses and arrested two officials of police station, who had destroyed the crucial evidences. We must also thank CM/home minister of the state, who did not even succumb to the pressures of her coalition partners. She took the right stand by deposing her full faith in the working of officers of the state crime branch, who rose to the occasion and proved their mettle. The C.M has shown her maturity and rightly dealt with the situation as compared to her predecessor who completely failed to face the challenges of similar nature in Shopian Rape case in 2009.
So far as the criminal justice system is concerned, it has three important pillars viz Police station, prosecution wing and the courts. All the three have to work with the dedication, honestly and revolve around the merit of the case so to achieve desired results and should appear to be as non-selective. All the three institutions are responsible for contributing and strengthening of a good justice delivery system in the state. Basically the members of all the three components come from the same society, where they are born, brought up and grown in similar environment. The courts also need to deliver the justice in time, particularly in such important cases so that justice is not delayed. The government needs to establish fast track courts for cases of special nature and of public importance so that these are decided with in stipulated time. The politicians and legislators need to act with high sense of responsibility and should not exploit the situation for creating wedge among the various sections of society. All the saner elements irrespective of caste, creed and religion, therefore must vehemently denounce such act of horrendous crime.
Abdul Rashid Khan (IPS) is the former IGP.