Kathua rape, murder case: Mastermind who drove Hindu Ekta Manch surrenders

By Nisar Dharma

Srinagar, Mar 20: The alleged mastermind behind the abduction, rape, and murder of an 8-year-old Kathua girl surrendered before the Crime Branch (CB) on Tuesday.
Sanji Ram, a retired revenue official, surrendered before the Senior Superintendent of Police (CB) Jammu.
State Police Chief, SP Vaid confirmed Sanji’s surrendering.
Asifa, a Bakerwal girl, was abducted on January 10 from close to her home in Rassana, a village in district Kathua’s Hiranagar Tehsil.
Her beaten-up, bruised and partially-burnt body was found on January 17 in the nearby bushes.
Since then, the case saw CB arresting the cops who were initially a part of the police’s investigating team but turned out to the main culprits or accomplices.
A source privy to the ongoing CB investigation told The Kashmir Monitor that committing the gruesome crime was Sanji Ram’s “game-plan”.
“The idea had first germinated in his mind. It was a ploy to dislodge the Bakerwal community from the village,” the source said.
Sanji, the source added, was the key man behind organising the Hindu Ekta Manch (HEM) protests, which aimed to politicise the issue by denouncing the ongoing investigation.
In one such protest, BJP Ministers Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga also took part.
“Hindu Ekta Manch was actually his brainchild. There was no such organisation before the crime happened. It was Sanji who created it to shield himself and others in the case,” the source said.
Sanji was also the custodian of Devasthan, the premises where Asifa was held captive for a week.
Shubam Sangra, a ‘juvenile’ who later turned out to be more than 19, was the first arrest made in the case by the local police.
A botched-up investigation by the police initially came to fore after the Crime Branch took over the case.
The CB, since then, has arrested eight people including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Verma for their involvement in the crime.
A constable Tilak Raj Kumar was also arrested after it was prima facie established that he had destroyed evidence by washing the blood and mud-soaked clothes of the victim before sending them for forensic examination.