Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said that she was appalled by the protest in demand for release of ‘rapist’ SPO arrested by police in connection with the ghastly murder and rape of the Kathua girl.
In a tweet, Mehbooba also said that she was “horrified” by use of tricolour by the protesters in Jammu.
“Appalled by the marches & protests in defense of the recently apprehended rapist in Kathua. Also horrified by their use of our national flag in these demonstrations, this is nothing short of desecration. The accused has been arrested & the law will follow its course,” Mehbooba tweeted.
Earlier this month, police’s crime branch arrested the Special Police Officer (SPO) for his involvement in connection with the kidnapping, rape and murder of 8-year-old nomad girl Asifa Bano of the Rasana village in the Hiranagar area of the Kathua district.
“The evidence against the SPO, Deepak Khajuria (28), is solid, and medical evidence shows that victim had been raped before murder,” Additional Director General of Police for the Crime Branch, Alok Puri, had said.
The SPO, posted at the Hiranagar police station, had been a part of the police team searching for the girl when her family first reported her missing on Jan 10..
According to the police, the motive of the crime was to spark fear in the nomad community.
Khajuria has confessed to the crime when confronted with the evidence, the police said.
His is the second arrest in the case since January 19 when the government had said that the Kathua police had arrested a 15-year-old boy who had confessed to the killing.
The minor accused, whose identity has not been disclosed due to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, has, according to the police claimed to have strangulated the girl when she resisted his rape attempt.
Legislators have repeatedly been questioning the lack of action from the police for a week after the girl went missing, and asking how a minor alone could have carried the victim’s body to it its hiding place.
Asifa Bano had been missing since January 10 when she had failed to return home from watering horses in Rassana forests , and her body was found on January 17.
The next day, after protests rocked the area, the Kathua police had said that an SIT under SDPO border, had been set up to investigate the case and a medical report of the murdered girl was expected within a couple of days.
On January 20, the government transferred the Station House Officer of the Hiranagar police station, ordering a magisterial probe, and three days later, on January 23, handed the case over to the Crime branch.
