Rape case was wrongly projected, claims Dy CM

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 19

Smelling a bigger conspiracy hatched from across the border to set Jammu and Kashmir on fire by raking up the Kathua incident, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh on Thursday said the case was “wrongly projected” by opposition parties and a section of media.

Nirmal’s statement is contrary to the stand of the coalition partner, PDP, which has hailed the BJP high command for taking action against its two ministers — Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga — for supporting those persons who were demanding handing over of the case to the CBI.

“Our ministers had resigned on moral grounds because a wrong perception was created at the national level against the BJP as some forces were hell-bent on giving a religious colour to the Kathua murder and alleged rape case,” the Deputy Chief Minister said while interacting with mediapersons here on Thursday.

While the BJP leadership is claiming the case was wrongly projected at the national level, the PDP had passed a resolution on April 15 to thank the people of the country and the media for positively supporting and highlighting the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl.

When his attention was drawn towards Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti earlier attending two programmes along with two BJP ministers, who were forced to resign, Nirmal put onus on her.

Lal Singh and Ganga were forced to resign on April 13 for attending a rally of the Hindu Ekta Manch on March 1.Even after attending the rally, both the ministers had attended functions presided over by the Chief Minister.

When asked how these two ministers became an eyesore within a couple of days, Nirmal said, “It is better to ask this question to the Chief Minister only.”

However, he smelt a deeper conspiracy at the national and international level to polarise the highly sensitive state after the Kathua incident. “After the formation of the PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K, some forces inimical to people are working to create a communal divide,” he said while blaming Pakistan, its henchmen in J&K and opposition parties for hatching a conspiracy to fan communal tension.