Responding to a report in The Indian Express, ‘BJP turns up Kathua heat again with video slamming J and K police (May 5, 2018)’, Monika Arora, Convener, Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), and Sonali Chitalkar, a member of its fact-finding team into the Kathua rape and murder, have said:
“The report says the team did not meet the family of the victim or the Muslim Bakerwal community. This is not true. The report has clearly listed the details of the members met. The father of the victim was contacted for a meeting… The interview was conducted telephonically and we have recordings as evidence.
The team also met and/or talked to Dr Javed Rahi, Talib Hussain and Nazakat Khatana, all of whom are prominent Bakerwal activists.
The (Express) report says the team included photos of their meeting with (Mehbooba) Mufti and J&K Minister Zulfikar Chowdhary but not their views on the case. This is again not true. The CM and and Chowdhary were kind enough to grace us with their views on the case. We have recorded and included their interviews in the report.”
The Indian Express replies:
The news article was based on a report circulated by the GIA on May 4. The report, which questioned the investigation conducted by the Crime Branch and made the case for a CBI inquiry into the Kathua rape and murder, did not mention that the group had met the victim’s family or the people from the community.
When contacted on Saturday, Chitalkar, an assistant professor at Miranda House, told The Indian Express that these interviews were in annexes and the report circulated did not include these. “The annexures are documents and interviews. The interviews are in Hindi except one, which is in English. The annexures couldn’t be attached to the report that was circulated on WhatsApp,’’ she said.
“We have said that we have met Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and (Tribal minister) Zulfikar Choudhary. We have put their interviews as annexures. We haven’t put their views in the report because we have made our conclusion on the basis of all the documents and an entire range of opinion. Our conclusion is that there should be a CBI inquiry. It is the conclusion of the fact-finding team. We have put all the views in annexures… if we had put the other view in the report, it would have become contradictory,” she said.
“We found that there is dissatisfaction with the Crime Branch investigation. A wide range of people are dissatisfied… The report is our conclusion but we have put the interviews in annexures,’’ she said.
She added that the team didn’t rely on the interview with SSP (Crime) Ramesh Jhalla because it relied on the post-mortem report.
When contacted on Saturday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said: “It is very clear that they had a premeditated conclusion and had come here only to substantiate their own view. They have circulated my picture with them without taking even a word that I told them in the report. They called me and said they are an independent women’s group who want to talk about this heinous crime against a child that has outraged the entire country. When they met me, I explained everything to them. I told them that the Crime Branch has worked very hard and that’s why it took so much time. I also asked them to meet (SSP Crime Branch) Ramesh Jhalla. They have disregarded all that. How can they conclude that whatever Crime Branch has done is wrong and that CBI inquiry is required? Why didn’t they consider the information we gave them?”
Chitalkar said that the group had talked to the biological father of the victim and a few activists of Gujjar and Bakerwal community.
When contacted, the biological father of the victim said he “doesn’t know about any women’s team”. He added: “I haven’t spoken to anybody.They didn’t come here. We had come to Jammu. They didn’t take any report from us.”
Bakerwal activist and lawyer Talib Hussain told The Indian Express, “This group has never met me. They have not met Deepika (the lawyer of the victim’s father) as well. Their report is what the families of the accused and their supporters are demanding. They have not met the biological father of the victim or the father who adopted her either.”
Chitalkar said: “We are not saying we met him. Our team members had contacted Talib in Delhi and talked to him.”
Javed Rahi said the group did meet him but his views were not included in the report. “They asked me to tell them about the Gujjar-Bakerwal community… I told them that we want justice for this victim. I told them that we are satisfied with what the government is doing. I never told them that we want a CBI inquiry. My point of view doesn’t reflect in their report.”