BJP-PDP spat in open over Kathua rape-murder case

The brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old tribal girl in Kathua area of Jammu and Kashmir in January continues to divide the state, with alliance partners in the state government - PDP and BJP - rallying behind the two sides.

Two senior BJP ministers, Lal Singh and Prakash Chander Ganga, while addressing a rally in Kathua on Thursday organised by Hindu Ekta Manch, a fringe right-wing group protesting against the arrest of a man accused in the rape and murder of nomadic Muslim Bakerwal girl, asked the police not to make any further arrests in the case.

They even called the investigation of the state Crime Branch, which is being monitored by the high court, as 'jungle raj'. The BJP ministers, while criticising the police, demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident.

However, after a rap from the Opposition parties, People's Democratic Party (PDP) ministers Altaf Bukhari and Nayeem Akhtar on Saturday decried attempts to politicise an inhuman criminal act. When Bukhari was asked by reporters to comment about alliance partner BJP's demand to hand over the case to Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), he evaded a direct answer.

"I don't think so as the case is already under investigation by the Crime Branch. I assure you on behalf of the government that we will not fail to deliver justice," he said.

Nayeem Akhtar, who is also a close confidant of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, without naming his colleagues from BJP, said that instead of trying to whip up communal passions over the shameful criminal act and hampering the investigation, the law enforcing agencies should be allowed to bring the criminals to justice.

On the demand to refer the case to the CBI, he said, "Ironically, the same politicians who are today questioning the professional capabilities of the police force and want it to be kept out of investigation, make a beeline to offer tributes when any personnel of the same force sacrifices his life while fighting elements inimical to peace."

"There cannot be double standards of valuing this key institution in one breath and demeaning the same institution in another," he said in a direct reference to BJP ministers.

'Criminal silence'

Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Geelani, lashing out at Mehbooba Mufti for her "criminal silence" on the incident, alleged that efforts by the ruling dispensation to shield the real culprits is the biggest irony. "We have no doubt that so-called alliance (PDP-BJP) is being run from Nagpur," he claimed in a statement.

The Bakerwal girl was abducted on January 10 when playing with other nomad children, from near her home in Kathua. Police registered an FIR two days later. On January 17, her body was found in the nearby forests. J&K government handed over the case to the Crime Branch after a public outcry.