Kathua rape-n-murder case: Court refers harassment complaint against SIT to DGP

Pathankot, July 9: The Pathankot District and Sessions court, which is hearing the Kathua rape and murder case, Monday referred a complaint of harassment by one of the accused to Jammu and Kashmir’s director general of police, a lawyer said. The court moved the complaint by Parvesh Kumar, alias Mannu, to the DGP after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch denied the allegations of torture levelled against them, saying the plea was was an “afterthought” and a “sheer act of frustration”. After receiving affidavits from SIT members, giving a point-by-point reply to Mannu’s allegations, Judge Tejwinder Singh said the complaint was forwarded to the DGP, who was at liberty to get it investigated from any officer of his choice as the offence is alleged to have been committed outside the premises and jurisdiction of the Pathankot court. With these observations, the judge dismissed the plea of the complainant, a lawyer said. “The application has been referred to the DGP and he will inquire into it,” special public prosecutor J K Chopra said. Mannu, who claimed to be a minor, had alleged that he had been subjected to torture on June 22 and 23 and forced into signing a statement before a magistrate. The accused was taken for a medical examination and a bone ossification test after he filed an application here that he was a juvenile. The medical examination report, submitted in the court, showed his age to be over 20 years. The SIT members said in their affidavits that the application from the accused was “an afterthought and a sheer act of frustration on the part of the applicant having been declared as an adult by the board of doctors”. The allegations levelled by the accused were “ill-motivated and aimed at lowering the image of members of SIT” who have conducted the probe in a fair and transparent manner, the affidavits said. Refuting the allegation that he was brought to the Crime Branch office after the medical test, the affidavits said “at no point of time on these two dates (June 22 and 23), the accused had been wrongfully confined, induced or tortured…” The SIT members also denied the allegation that the accused was put on a video call with additional superintendent of police Naveed Peerzada during which he was threatened. At no point was Mannu made to talk to Peerzada, they said. The affidavits also denied seeking any help from the jail superintendent of Kathua prison in bringing the accused before any member of the SIT. Mannu is one of eight, including a minor, accused of raping and killing an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district this January.

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