Man accused of raping 70-year-old tourist in Pahalgam denied bail  

A court in Kashmir has rejected the bail application of a man, who allegedly raped a 70-year-old woman tourist at Pahalgam in South Kashmir in March this year.

In the court order issued on Friday, Principal Sessions Judge, Anantnag, Tahir Khurshid Raina, said, “Mere meadows, mountains, lush green fields…will not come to the rescue of Kashmir as a desired tourist destination,” and noted that the incident is a “reflection of a highest degree of depravity and sick mentality prevailing in the society—which must bow its head down in shame.”

According to the court order, a 70-year-old widow from Maharashtra, who was in Pahalgam with her son’s family to enjoy the "beauty of Kashmir", was alleged to be sexually assaulted by the accused.

“Taking advantage of her being alone in her hotel room at Pahalgam, the accused allegedly entered her room, gagged her mouth, raped her and then fled through the window. So brutal was the sexual assault that the old lady remained in pain for days together,” the court said.

The court said the investigation in the case prima facie reveals the commission of offence "in a highly dastardly manner."

“This is what she has carried from the Pahalgam for the rest of her life where she had come to enjoy the beauty of Kashmir,” it said.

The accused, a South Kashmir incident, had approached court seeking bail on the grounds that the police harboured some personal grudge against him and his father, on account of which he has been falsely implicated in the case.

The court, however, said “this court does not legally reconcile with the prayer for bail at this stage, which is accordingly rejected.”

In his order, the judge remarked the alleged incident is “highly unfortunate, condemnable by all possible words, and ought to have jolted the conscious of this society- which claims its moorings to be based on rich ethical values and culture—but now stands shaken to the hilt.”

“A revered guest, who was a senior lady, on her visit to this land of saints and seers, was treated so shabbily and shockingly that for all times to come, she will have remorse over the choice of place she made to spend a period of her old age days with her children,” the judge noted.

Stating that “it is not an isolated act to be ignored, but a reflection of a highest degree of depravity and sick mentality prevailing in the society—which must bow its head down in shame,” the judge said it “invites a serious introspection as to what it stood for, and how that has now collapsed.”

The court while stressing that it “every day witnesses the reflection of the probity level of this society” expressed its concern that it is hopelessly getting eroded on various fronts, and stated, “No sooner the sheet-anchors, conscious keepers, watch dogs, and philanthropists of this society will rise to the occasion to check what is going wrong on the moral front of the society, the better will be for saving the Kashmir as the paradise on earth in its true sense.”