Hiranagar residents protest ‘harassment’, seek CBI probe

KATHUA: Hindu Ekta Manch activists and Hiranagar residents on Thursday staged a protest against the government for its failure to handover the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Rasana village of Kathua to the CBI.

Sanjay Pathak

Kathua, March 22

Hindu Ekta Manch activists and Hiranagar residents on Thursday staged a protest against the government for its failure to handover the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Rasana village of Kathua to the CBI. They accused the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police of “harassing” innocent people.

The protesters blocked the Jammu-Pathankot national highway at Kootah Morh and burnt the effigies of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh for their alleged failure to fulfil their demand for a CBI probe.

“The Crime Branch has been continuously harassing locals, including women and children, in the name of inquiry. It has been investigating the case on communal lines to fulfil the nefarious designs of their masters in Kashmir. The Crime Branch officials have been making arrests at their sweet will which we will not tolerate,” alleged Kant Kumar, Hindu Ekta Manchgeneral secretary.

He said friends of Vishal Jangotra, who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh recently, were also summoned by the Crime Branch and were pressurised to make a frivolous statement that Vishal attendance was marked by them at Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut.

“The 26 BJP MLAs, who are the custodians of Jammu people, are mute spectators to this suppressive tactics of the Kashmir-centric government. The Deputy Chief Minister has turned down the demand for a CBI inquiry despite being aware that the Crime Branch has been working on communal lines. They have sold their conscience for the sake of power,” Kumar alleged.

The protesters alleged that they had been demanding a CBI inquiry for the past two months so that the real culprits would be punished.

They said despite assurance by two BJP ministers, their demand had not been met, forcing them to come out on the roads.

“Politicians are trying to suppress our struggle for a fair and impartial probe which has become clear from the silence of BJP ministers who had promised us a CBI inquiry,” they said.

“If the people themselves want the real culprits to be punished, then what is holding the state government back from ordering a CBI probe. It is clear that the government’s intentions are not clear,” the protesters said.