New Delhi, June 30: A court in Anantnag rejected the bail plea of a man accused of raping a 70-year-old woman. The alleged rape took place inside a hotel room in Pahalgam – a tourist hotspot that is still recovering from a different kind of horror, a terrorist attack that killed 26.
The court lamented a sexual assault it said reflected a “sick mentality” and the “moral decay” of society in general, and expressed sorrow over the woman, a tourist from Maharashtra, having to carry this traumatic memory as a horrific reminder of her visit to the former state.
A furious court denied the accused, identified as Zubair Ahmad, a local, any relief.
Principal Sessions Judge Tahir Khurshid Raina said, “I do not find arguments advanced (by Ahmad) sufficient to influence the judicial conscience of this court to describe the incarceration of the accused as ‘legally unsustainable and unwarranted at this stage of the investigation’…”
The court rejected the Supreme Court’s ‘bail is the rule, jail the exception’ maxim, arguing that releasing a man accused of such a horrific attack would set a bad precedent.
It also noted initial medical and forensic reports support the woman’s statement, and that it could not take the risk of Ahmad trying to escape or tamper with evidence.
Judge Raina said the incident could not be viewed as an isolated act. In a hard-hitting judgement he labelled the rape “a reflection of the highest degree of depravity and sick mentality in society” and demanded “a serious introspection” of societal values and mores.
“A revered guest, a senior lady on her visit to this land of saints and seers, was treated so shabbily and shockingly that, for all times to come, she will have remorse over her choice of place to spend a period of her old age days with her children,” the court grieved.
“Mere meadows, mountains, lush green fields, forests, springs, rivers, rivulets, and gardens will not come to the rescue of Kashmir as a desired tourist destination,” Judge Raina warned.
Earlier, the accused, Ahmad, argued he had been falsely implicated by the police.
According to police the rape – on April 11 – left the woman with severe injuries. Ahmad allegedly broke into her hotel room, gagged her with a blanket, and raped her before escaping.