2018 Kathua abduction, gang rape and murder case | |
---|---|
Location | Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, India |
Coordinates | 32°23′06″N75°31′01″E / 32.385°N 75.517°E |
Date | 10 January 2018 - 17 January 2018 |
Target | Asifa Bano |
Attack type | Abduction, gang rape, and murder |
Injured | Sexual assault (gang rape) |
Victim | Asifa Bano |
Perpetrators | Six men and a juvenile |
Motive | Drive out the nomadic Muslim community of Bakarwals from Hiranagar Tehsil [1] |
Accused | Sanji Ram Deepak Khajuria Tilak Raj Arvind Dutta Parvesh Kumar Vishal (son of Sanji Ram) A Juvenile (nephew of Sanji Ram) [2] [3] |
Convicted | Sanji Ram Deepak Khajuria Surender Verma Tilak Raj Anand Dutta Parvesh Kumar. [4] |
Verdict | Six of the seven accused were convicted |
Convictions | Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar were sentenced to life imprisonment of 25 years. Tilak Raj, Anand Dutta and Surender Verma were sentenced to five years in jail for destroying evidence. Court acquitted Vishal due to lack of evidence. A juvenile, will be tried at a juvenile court. [5] |
The Kathua rape case involved the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa Bano, by seven Hindu males (six men and a juvenile) in January 2018 in the Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, India. A chargesheet for the case was filed, the accused were arrested and the trial began in Kathua on 16 April 2018. [6] [7] The victim belonged to the nomadic Bakarwal community, and the crime was a bid to terrorise the group off Jammu. [8] She disappeared for a week before her body was discovered by the villagers a kilometer away from the village. [9] [10] [8] [11] The incident made national news when charges were filed against eight men in April 2018. The arrests of the accused led to protests by the Panthers Party and other local groups, who sought justice for the victim. [12] [13] [14] [15] The gang rape and murder, as well as the support the accused received especially from local officials of the Bharatiya Janata Party, sparked widespread outrage in India and world-wide. [16] [17] [9]
On 10 June 2019, six of the seven defendants were convicted and one acquitted. [18] Three of those convicted were sentenced to life imprisonment and the remaining three to five years. [19] In October 2019, court ordered a First Information Report (FIR) against 6 members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the case, for allegedly torturing and coercing witnesses to give false statements. [20]
The 5600-word chargesheet filed by a Senior Superintendent of Police of Jammu, states that on 12 January 2018, Mohammad Yusuf lodged a complaint in the Hiranagar police station stating that his daughter had gone missing. His complaint said that on 10 January 2018 his daughter, aged 8, had gone to watch over grazing horses at 12.30 p.m. She was seen at 2.00 p.m., but when the horses returned at 4.00 p.m., she was no longer with them. After searching for her and being unable to find her, her father registered a First Information Report (FIR) with the police. [21] [22]
On 17 January 2018, the body of the victim was found and taken into custody by the police to allow an autopsy to be conducted. The postmortem was conducted by a team of doctors at the District Hospital in Kathua at 2:30 PM on the same day. On 22 January 2018, the investigation of the case was transferred to the Crime Branch and Crime Headquarters, Jammu and Kashmir. [21] [22] A statement released by the police listed seven individuals who had been arrested and charged over the crime, including four police officers. [17] A total of eight people, including four police officers, were arrested. [23] [24] Two of the police officers were arrested on suspicion of attempting to destroy evidence [17] and of accepting money to cover up the incident. One of the accused claimed to be 15 years old, though a medical examination later suggested he was 19. Sanji Ram, one of the accused, was described by the police as having devised the plan of kidnap and murder. [25] The chargesheet against the seven adults accused of the crime was filed on 9 April. The accused were charged under Sections 302, 376, 201 and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code. A chargesheet against the remaining individual was under preparation. [26]
The post-mortem revealed the presence of clonazepam in the body of the dead girl. [24] The examination by the doctors found that the girl had been drugged with a sedative before she was raped and murdered. Forensic evidence suggested that she had been held for several days by Sanji Ram, one of the individuals accused of the crime. Strands of hair recovered from the temple matched those taken from the girl. [17] The forensic examination stated that Bano had been raped multiple times by different men, and that she had been strangled to death, as well as hit in the head with a heavy stone. [9]
The Delhi Forensic Science Laboratory analyzed 14 packets of evidence containing vaginal swabs, hair strands, blood samples of four accused, viscera of the deceased girl, the girl's frock and salwar, simple clay, and blood stained clay. Vaginal swabs matched with the DNA of the accused as did some other samples. Hair strands found in the temple where Asifa was raped matched that of the girl and the accused. [27]
Sanji Ram was found to be the main accused in the case. He is the priest of the family temple, where the incident took place. The Hindu community of the village prays three times a day in that temple according to local people. His son Vishal and his nephew, a juvenile, were also accused in the case. The others who have been accused are Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar, who are police officers; Tilak Raj, a head constable and Arvind Dutta, a sub-inspector. The police contested the claim that the nephew was a juvenile. [2] [3] [28] [29] Vishal Jangotra claimed to be in Meerut attending an exam. However, according to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), his signature does not match the signature on the exam attendance sheet [30] but based on evidence submitted by an Indian Media House which included CCTV footage of Vishal Jangotra in a Muzaffarnagar ATM on day of crime. [31]
The rape and murder made headlines in India when the charges were filed in April. [16] The rape and murder drew widespread condemnation. On 18 January opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir staged a walkout from the Legislative Assembly in protest of the incident. [33] Various protests have been held across Jammu and Kashmir. [34]
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti stated that the investigation would be carried out quickly. [35] [36] Mufti also stated that the death penalty would be made mandatory for individuals convicted of raping a minor. [37] Maneka Gandhi, the Indian Minister of Women and Child Development, also expressed support for the death penalty in cases of child rape, and stated that her ministry would move a Cabinet note to amend The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act act. [38] Advocate Deepika Singh Rajawat took over the trail pro-bono for the victims family. [39]
On 13 April 2018, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, as well as the Supreme Court of India, made statements condemning the incident and said justice would be ensured. [40] [41] United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that the "guilty must be held responsible" and described the incident as "horrific". The United Nations also expressed hopes that authorities will bring perpetrators to justice. [42]
Several celebrities and prominent politicians voiced anger over the incident. [43] [44] On 12 April 2018, a candlelight march was held at India Gate, New Delhi. It was attended by Indian National Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Priyanka Gandhi. [45] [46] An FIR has been filed against lawyers protesting in support of Hindu Ekta Manch. [47] An assistant manager working for Kotak Mahindra Bank in Kerala, generated outrage on social media for condoning the rape on Facebook, and stating "it is better that [Asifa is] killed now otherwise she would have been a bomb tomorrow". He was later fired by the bank. [48] [49]
Due to the Kathua rape case and Unnao rape case incidents coming to the limelight in the national discourse at the same time, joint protests for both the incidents were carried out together in various parts of the country such as Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi. [50] [51] [52] [53]
Former minister, Harsh Dev Singh, led protests by the Panthers Party, demanding an independent CBI probe into the matter, [54] [55] that was refused by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. [56] [57]
Raj Shrikant Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena criticized the BJP for "supporting the rapists" and "communalising the incident". He suggested Sharia type punishment for the rapists. He said "These BJP leaders created Hindu Ekta Manch in Jammu which held a rally shouting slogans of Bharat Mata ki jai (translation: victory to mother India), waving the tricolour in favour of rapists. How can you even think of doing so? The eight-year-old innocent child was not even aware of her religion and had to undergo such pain. Here we have a party which is protecting the rapists" [58] [59] [60]
The incident resulted in widespread anger across Jammu and Kashmir. Following protests by members of the opposition, the state government handed over the investigation to the Crime Branch of the state police. [17] The chargesheet filed by the police stated that the abduction of the victim was planned in an attempt to get personal revenge by the accused, as well as to intimidate the Bakarwal community into moving out of the area. [17] The Bakarwal people are a Muslim minority living in a Hindu-dominated Kathua district. [37] The fact that Asifa was held in a Hindu temple increased the communal tension it generated. [25] Local leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party stated that the arrests had been made under political pressure, and asked for the crime to be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). [24] Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose People's Democratic Party shares power in the state with the BJP, rejected the demand. [17] News reports suggested that the demand for a CBI probe was an effort to make the investigation lenient on the accused; the CBI is a branch of the Indian Union government, controlled by the Indian Union government. [25] Madhya Pradesh BJP President stated that militants from Pakistan were to blame for the rape and murder; his statement received criticism in the press. [61] Individuals across party lines set up an organisation called the "Hindu Ekta Manch" (Hindu Unity Movement) which argued that the arrested individuals were innocent. [62] The victim's community planned to bury her in a graveyard where they had purchased some land a few years previously. The victim's father stated that when the family attempted to bury Asifa, they were threatened with violence by right-wing Hindu activists, and were compelled to bury her in a different village. [8]
Right-wing Hindu groups staged protests against the arrests of the accused individuals, who are all Hindus. [63] [64] Two ministers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Forest Minister Lal Singh Chaudhary and Industries Minister Chander Prakash, attended one of the protests. [16] One of the women protesters told The New York Times that they were "against our religion", and stated that the protesters would burn themselves if the accused were not released. [25] While attempting to file charges against the accused on 9 April, the Crime Branch police were met with protests from lawyers in front of the Chief Judicial Magistrate's office in Kathua. The lawyers were protesting in support of the Hindu Ekta Manch, and tried to prevent the charges from being filed; the chargesheet was submitted eventually after police reinforcements arrived. [62] This support for individuals accused of rape led to widespread social outrage. [16]
The Delhi High Court issued a fine of ₹ 10 lakhs (1 million) rupees on twelve media houses in India for disclosing the name of the rape victim as well as other details including the usage of photographs of the victim. This action by the High Court of New Delhi was taken suo-motu and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and the Indian Penal Code. The fine was to be paid within a week. The money collected from the fine has gone to the Jammu and Kashmir Victim Compensation Scheme. [65] [66]
The media houses included The Hindu , The Times of India , Republic TV, The Indian Express , The Week and NDTV. Lawyers representing media houses claim that the mistake was only made because there was a misunderstanding that the law in this case only extended to naming and revealing information related to rape survivors, and not rape victims. Following this, media houses across the country blanked out the name of the victim online in already published articles also. [67] [68] [69]
The trial for the Kathua murder and rape case began in Jammu and Kashmir on 16 April 2018 before the Principal Sessions Court judge, Kathua. [6] The second hearing was scheduled for 28 April 2018. [7] The Supreme Court sought a response from the Jammu and Kashmir government regarding shifting the trial to Chandigarh by 27 April 2018. [70] A demand by Bhim Singh, leader of the Panthers Party, for an independent inquiry by the CBI was heard and denied by the Supreme Court of India. [71] [72] [73]
On 7 May 2018, the Supreme Court of India shifted the case from Jammu and Kashmir to Pathankot. The Supreme Court instructed the trial to be fast-tracked. The trial was closed to the public and press according to orders from the Supreme Court. The trial also was held in-camera as per instructions from the Supreme Court. [74] [75] [76]
The trial was being held under the Ranbir Penal Code, according to laws in Jammu and Kashmir. [74]
On 14 November 2018, the family of the rape victim decided to drop their lawyer Deepika Rajawat. [77] The application to remove the power of attorney was filed before the trial court in Pathankot, where the girl's father said Rajawat won't be representing them in the case anymore stating her security concerns and general lack of interest in the case. [78] Over 100 hearings have taken place so far, but Deepika Rajawat was only present twice. [79] [80]
On 10 June 2019, six of the seven defendants were found guilty, and one was acquitted. [18] [81] Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Pravesh Kumar were sentenced to life imprisonment for 25 years, along with a fine of ₹1,00,000. [82] [83] The other three accused - Tilak Raj, Anand Dutta and Surender Verma were sentenced to five years in jail for destroying crucial evidence in the case. The court acquitted Sanji Ram's son, Vishal due to lack of evidence. The eighth accused, Sanji Ram's juvenile nephew, was tried at a juvenile court. [82] [83] [84]
On 22 October 2019, a Jammu court ordered an FIR to be filed against members of the J&K Crime Branch's Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the rape and murder in Kathua case. The order was based on a complaint from Sachin Sharma, Neeraj Sharma and Sahil Sharma alleging torture during interrogation to "provide false evidence" against one of the accused Vishal Jangotra, who was later acquitted in the case. [85] [20]
Priyadarshini Mattoo was a 25-year-old law student who was found raped and murdered at her house in New Delhi on 23 January 1996. On 17 October 2006, the Delhi High Court found Santosh Kumar Singh guilty on both counts of rape and murder, and on 30 October of the same year sentenced him to death. On 6 October 2010, the Supreme Court of India commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. Santosh Kumar Singh, the son of an Inspector-General of Police, had earlier been acquitted by a trial court in 1999, and the High Court decision was widely perceived in India as a landmark reversal. This decision was overturned as the facts were not presented correctly in the lower court.
Chaudhary Lal Singh is an Indian politician from Jammu and Kashmir. He was Minister for Forest, Environment, Ecology of J&K in PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K. He represented the Basohli in Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
The Uttar Pradesh Police, is the primary law enforcement agency within the Uttar Pradesh state of India. Established in 1863 as the Office of the Inspector General of Police, United Provinces under the Police Act, 1861.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is a specialised counter-terrorism law enforcement agency in India. The agency is empowered to deal with the investigation of terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states under written proclamation from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The primary mandate of the National Investigation Agency is to investigate and prosecute offences that have national and cross-border implications, specifically focusing on terrorism, insurgency, and other related matters. It is empowered to investigate cases that involve threats to the sovereignty, security, and integrity of India. It has the authority to conduct searches, make seizures and arrests, as well as to collect evidence and maintain a database of terrorist organisations and their members.
In the infamous 2003 Kiliroor sex scandal, a teenaged girl named Shari S. Nair, hailing from Kiliroor, Kottayam, Kerala, India was sexually abused by reportedly being promised roles in TV serials. She was taken to many places in and around Kerala and was allegedly exploited sexually by "influential persons". Shari S Nair later died after she gave birth to a daughter who is now being raised by her parents.
The Shopian rape and murder case, also known as Asiya, Neelofar case, is the abduction, rape and murder case of two young women allegedly by the CRPF. In mysterious circumstances between 29 and 30 May 2009 at Bongam, Shopian district in the Jammu and Kashmir state of India. Two women, who were sisters-in-law went missing from their orchard on the way home on 29 May 2009. The next morning, their bodies were found both one kilometer apart. Local police rejected the allegations saying that the women appeared to have drowned in a stream. On June 22 of 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir administration terminated two doctors, Dr. Bilal Ahmad Dalal and Dr. Nighat Shaheen Chilloo, for allegedly "actively working" with Pakistan-based groups and falsifying evidence in the case. According to officials, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found that the deaths of Asiya Jan and Neelofar on May 29, 2009, were due to accidental drowning, not rape or murder. The doctors allegedly manipulated the post-mortem report to frame security forces, aiming to incite disaffection against the Indian state. The CBI has charge-sheeted them for fabricating evidence, accusing them of conspiring with Pakistan-linked assets in Kashmir to distort the truth of the incident.
Uttar Pradesh NRHM Scam is an alleged corruption scandal in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, in which top politicians and bureaucrats are alleged to have siphoned off a massive sum estimated at ₹100 billion (US$1.2 billion) from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a central government program meant to improve health care delivery in rural areas. At least five people are said to have been murdered in an attempt to coverup large-scale irregularities. Several former ministers of then ruling party, Bahujan Samaj Party have been investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.
Tirath Das Dogra is an Indian forensic pathologist. He was the pro-chancellor and vice-chancellor of SGT University, Budhera Gurgaon Haryana (2013–2017).
The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and, as the public outrage mounted, the government had her transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she succumbed to her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the state and central governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless", and her struggle and death became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 is an Indian legislation passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013, and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 March 2013, which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on laws related to sexual offences. The Bill received Presidential assent on 2 April 2013 and was deemed to be effective from 3 February 2013. It was originally an Ordinance promulgated by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, on 3 February 2013, in light of the protests in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.
On 27 May 2014, a gang rape and murder of two teenage girls was reported in the Katra village of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was widely reported in the press in India as well as overseas. After an extensive investigation, CBI concluded that there was no gang rape and the suspects were released. However, on 28 October 2015 the POCSO court rejected the CBI closure report; it was a major setback for CBI. According to reports, in the evening the girls had gone out into a field that was used for open defecation and did not return. The police were notified, but initially took no action. Villagers searched for the girls throughout the night and they were found the following morning hanging from a tree.
Tulsiram Prajapati was a man, who was killed while in custody at 5 am on 26 December 2005. The case is widely believed to have been an encounter killing by the Gujarat Police. DIG D.G. Vanzara has been in jail for seven years, on charges of having organised this encounter, among others.
Kavinder Gupta is an Indian politician from the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He is the last Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir state.
The Unnao rape case refers to the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl on 4 June 2017 in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, India. On 16 December 2019, former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted for the rape on 20 December 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Further, Sengar was found guilty in the death of the girl's father in judicial custody.
Kuldeep Singh Sengar is an Indian politician and former member of Legislative Assembly belonging to the Bhartiya Janta Party from Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh who has been convicted of rape, murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation. He was the main defendant in the Unnao rape case and was booked under the POCSO Act. He was also accused of killing three people, including the victim's father in police custody and later her aunts by a conspired truck accident. A Delhi District and Sessions Court upheld an investigation conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that had ruled out any foul play in the Unnao rape survivor's accident in 2019.
The Muzaffarpur shelter case refers to a shelter home that ran under a non-governmental organization called "Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti" at Muzaffarpur, Bihar, where cases of sexual abuse, rape and torture were reported. In a medical examination, sexual abuse of 34 out of 42 of the girls living at the shelter was confirmed. A first information report (FIR) was lodged against 12 people on 31 May 2018. Brajesh Thakur was the chief of the state-funded NGO, ran several other NGOs and a Hindi newspaper called Pratah Kamal. Because of the political connections of Brajesh Thakur and the involvement of government officials and the apparent delay in investigation and CBI interference, the case drew criticism of Nitish Kumar's government by opposition and the Supreme Court of India.
On 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old woman was gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, India, by four men. She died two weeks later in a Delhi hospital.
Machil fake encounter, also known as Machil encounter case, refers to a extrajudicial killing which was carried out by the Indian Army on 29 April 2010 by killing the three Kashmiri civilians Shazad Ahmad Khan (27), Shafi Ahmad Lone (19) and Riyaz Ahmad Lone (20) and labelled them as Pakistani militants. Considered as one of the biggest human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir since insurgency began in 1947 between India, Pakistan and China, the trio were killed in Machil area of Kupwara district, Jammu and Kashmir at the Line of Control (LoC).
On 9 August 2024, a 31-year-old female postgraduate trainee doctor at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, was raped and murdered in a college building. Her body was found in a seminar room on campus. On 10 August 2024, a 33-year-old male civic volunteer working for Kolkata Police was arrested under suspicion of committing the crime. Three days later, the Calcutta High Court, transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stating that the Kolkata Police's investigation did not inspire confidence. The junior doctors in West Bengal undertook a strike action for 42 days demanding a thorough probe of the incident and adeqaute security at hospitals. The incident has amplified debate about the safety of women and doctors in India, and has sparked significant outrage, and nationwide and international protests.
"Ordinarily, police is the authority for investigation. A case has to be made out that it (investigation) is not going in the right manner. In the absence of that, as presently advised, we are not entering into that," the bench told Senior Advocate and National Panthers Party Chief Patron Bhim Singh, who sought to intervene in the matter.
The bench, however, made it clear that it would not allow any intervention application after senior advocate and J&K Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh pleaded that the matter be entrusted to an independent agency like the CBI.