National

Shopian case: court asks government to probe deeper

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday asked the State government’s investigation team to prepare a list of all civilians, police and paramilitary forces who were present in the area the day two young women were allegedly raped and murdered in Shopian.

It asked the team to conduct a narco-analysis test on the two witnesses who claimed to have heard the women’s cries.

Hearing a case filed by the Kashmir Bar Association, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Gosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir studied the case diaries of the police and said the two witnesses should be put through narco-analysis test. The witnesses had deposed before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shopian, that they heard cries of women from a blue police trooper carrier at 8 p.m. on May 29 on a bridge in the area the incident occurred. The following day, the bodies of the women were recovered from a stream.

The Bench suggested that a senior officer supervise the investigation. The Chief Justice sought the names of the officers who could be given the task. Advocate-General M.I. Qadri suggested the names of M.A. Shah, S.M. Sahai, Amin Anjum and Sheikh Owais Ahmad, all Inspectors-General in the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Justice Gosh said the police and paramilitary officers would be asked to provide a list of their personnel posted in the camp on the day of the incident in order to find a DNA match for the semen obtained from the vaginal swabs of the victims.

He said efforts should be made to trace the nomads who left the place on the night of the incident. “Our effort shall be to zero-in on the culprit. If we locate any of the nomads, an artistic illustration of the offender can be drawn that can help in uncovering the offender,” he said.

Earlier, the Advocate-General presented the case diaries of the incident. An in-camera examination of the case diaries and inquiries of the inquest report was conducted by the Division Bench. “Personally, I feel the post-mortem has not been done in a way it should have been,” the Chief Justice observed.

Mian Abdul Qayoom appeared on behalf of the Kashmir Bar Association.

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