Man who led stir for Kathua victim held on rape charge

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 1

Talib Hussain, who was at the forefront of demonstrations seeking justice in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl from Rasana in Kathua district, has been arrested by the Samba police on the charge of raping a married woman in the Majalta forest area in Udhampur.

“He was arrested from the Tral area of Pulwama district in south Kashmir on Tuesday and brought to Samba following a written complaint of a married woman who has accused him of raping her in a jungle about one and a half months ago,” a senior police officer told The Tribune.

An FIR under Section 376 and 4/25 Arms Act of the RPC was registered against Talib at Samba police station on Tuesday.

According to the complaint of the woman, Talib is her relative and met her in the forest when she went to the Chadwa jungle for grazing cattle. “He was armed with ‘tokka’ (sharp-edged weapon) and with the intention of raping her, he thrashed the woman on the ground and tried to rape her. He also touched her private parts,” the FIR copy said.

“The police acted swiftly and after a tip-off about his stay in the Tral area, he was arrested and brought to Samba,” a police source said.

Talib also has an FIR filed against him by his wife Nusrat Begum (30), who had approached the police on June 28, alleging that she was subjected to physical torture by her husband for dowry.

The FIR was filed against him after conducting a preliminary inquiry into the complaint filed by Nusrat. The directive for an inquiry was issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Samba.

In that case, Talib was booked under various provisions of the RPC, including domestic violence, dowry demand, threatening to divorce his wife and making an attempt to murder her.

The victim’s father Mohammad Tahir had alleged that Talib was working for the Hurriyat Conference.

Talib, who claims to be the lawyer of the victim’s family in the Kathua rape-and-murder case, does not have an LLB degree and never represented them in the court.

In another FIR, accused of domestic violence 

Talib Hussain also has an FIR filed against him by his wife Nusrat Begum (30), who had approached the police on June 28, alleging that she was subjected to physical torture by her husband for dowry

‘Accused was armed with weapon’

• According to the complaint of the woman, Talib is her relative and met her in the forest when she went to the Chadwa jungle for grazing cattle.
• “He was armed with ‘tokka’ (sharp-edged weapon) and with the intention of raping her, he thrashed the woman on the ground and tried to rape her,” the FIR copy said.
• Talib, who claims to be the lawyer of the victim’s family in the Kathua rape-and-murder case, does not have an LLB degree and never represented them in the court.