M A I N   N E W S

Interim Report
Shopian probe panel indicts police, docs
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 21
The Justice Jan Commission inquiring into the alleged rape and murder of two young women of Shopian submitted its interim report to the government late this evening here. Official sources said the one-man commission had indicted the police, the then deputy commissioner and doctors for showing grave negligence and not responding to a serious crime of this nature in an appropriate manner.

They say the commission had told that the police should have responded with more alacrity, as expected of a professional investigating agency, when they recovered the bodies of Neelofar Jan (22) and her sister-in-law Aasiya Jan (17) from a stream. It has caused destruction of evidence. The cops instead insisted they died due to drowning and it had come in for flak by the commission, which subsequently said they were murdered, based upon the statements of the doctors.

The sources said the commission had cited statements of some witnesses, who were not pursued by the police as they refused to register a case of murder.