Kathua minor’s killing: 15-year old accused arrested, investigation on, says Govt

Jammu, Jan 19: The Government on Friday said that the accused, a minor (15 years old), has been arrested in connection with the death of a minor girl in Hiranagar area of district Kathua.
Responding to the concern expressed by the Legislators on the gruesome incident, Minister for Revenue & Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rehman Veeri informed the House that the accused has confessed to the crime.
He said the investigation conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by SDPO border Chadwal revealed that the accused kidnapped the minor girl and put her in nearby cowshed at village Rassana, where he attempted to rape her and when she resisted, he killed her by way of strangulation. He said the accused has been arrested and further investigations are on.
Giving details of the case, the Minister said that on 12.01.2018, the complainant Mohammad Yousuf S/o Shab Din R/o Rassana Mohara, Tehsil Hiranagar produced a written application before the police stating therein that his daughter namely Asifa (8 years) had gone for grazing horses in the nearby forest area. At about 1600 hours, the horses returned to the Dhera but Asifa did not return. Consequently, the complainant alongwith others started search in the forest and on the next day they again searched the forest areas but Asifa could not be traced.
As per the content of the application, case FIR No: 10/2018 U/S363 RPC was registered and the investigation started.
The Minister said that during the course of investigation, police party of Police Station Hiranagar and VDC Badoli visited the spot and search of Rassana forest was conducted alongwith civilians and Bakerwals residing in the area.
He said on 17.01.2017, at about 1030 hours dead body of missing girl Asifa was recovered from the Rassana forest area. Thereafter the police team alongwith SDPO and SHO Hiranagar visited the spot and photography of dead body was conducted through crime photographer, service of FSL team was also utilized. The dead body of deceased was taken into police custody for post-mortem.
Later on, the dead body was shifted to District Hospital Kathua for conducting the post-mortem through board of doctors. After the post-mortem, the dead body was handed over to its legal heirs for last rites.
Investigation of case is in progress to collect more evidence about the commission of offence by the accused, he said.
Earlier, Minister for Works, Naeem Akhtar also made a statement in the Upper House on the issue.
Meanwhile, quoting SSP Kathua Suleman Choudary, news agency GNS said that police have arrested three suspected persons in connection with the murder and “hopefully we will crack the case soon”.
On Friday, one social activist Advocate Talib Hussain staged a protest demonstration near Tawi Bridge in Jammu against the brutal killing of the minor girl.
“We are protesting against the negligence of SHO. The doctors are also tight-lipped over the medical report. We suspect that they want to hush-up the case,” Talib said.
Talib Hussain said that the girl was bitten on face, abdomen and other parts. “She was abducted with an intention to rape. After carrying out this heinous crime, the girl was later brutality murdered,” he said.
He said that had police acted promptly after the family filed the complaint, the girl would have been rescued.
Talib alleged that there was “complete police negligence as they did not act promptly.” As per doctors, he said, the girl had died within 24 hours after her body was recovered.
The protesters demanded strict action against those responsible for the heinous crime.
Protests were held in many parts of Kashmir including Maisuma and Hyderpora and from Jammu division’s Kathua, Ramban, Surnkote, Poonch, Doda and Gandoh. The protesters were demanding the action against the culprits. (With inputs from GNS)