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High Court orders fresh autopsy on Shopian women

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Saturday asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to exhume the bodies of the two women who were murdered at Shopian for a fresh autopsy and collecting DNA samples.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Barin Gosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by the Kashmir Bar Association, expressed dissatisfaction with the way the investigation was handled.

The court found the report submitted by the SIT inconclusive, for, the DNA test report was missing and the post mortem seemed not to have been done properly. It said exhumation of the bodies was conditional upon the consent of the families of the women, aged 17 and 23, who were found dead under mysterious circumstances on May 30.

A fresh post-mortem and DNA tests would be conducted by a team of experts to be set up by the principal of the Medical College, Srinagar.

“This is a sensational matter. Every man on the street, irrespective of caste or creed, is praying for the culprits to be caught,” the Bench observed.

The Bench directed the investigation team to interrogate and put to narco-analysis test all the five suspended police officials, including the former Superintendent of Police, Shopian. These officials were indicted by the Muzaffar Jan Commission for failure to investigate the case properly, thus contributing to the destruction, dissipation and suppression of evidence.

From now on, the investigation should be conducted under the supervision of the Inspector-General of Police (CID) Farooq Ahmad and Deputy Inspector-General Rouful Hassan, the court said. It also asked the SIT to submit a progress report to the court every week.

Relatives and residents had alleged that the two women were raped and then murdered. Under public pressure, the police registered a case of rape and murder 10 days after the initial report of post mortem was submitted.