Kathua rape victim’s kin want lawyer out

NEW DELHI: The father of the eight-year-old Kathua rape victim on Wednesday moved an application in the Pathankot court to withdraw power of attorney from advocate Deepika Singh Rajawat, who was his advocate in the case till now.

Rajawat, a Jammu lawyer, had become a national celebrity after she volunteered to fight on behalf of the victim’s family after the rape and murder of the girl polarised the state along communal lines.

Sources close to the parents said that the family relieved her from the case because they were upset with Rajawat’s self-aggrandisement at the expense of their raped and murdered girl child. “She was not paying attention to the case but instead went around projecting herself as some great crusader for justice. But when it came to knowing the legalities of the case, she was clueless. She hardly turned up for the case in the court and claimed that she has threat to her life,” a person close to the family told the TOI.

In January, the eight-year-old girl of a nomadic family was allegedly raped and murdered to drive out the Muslim population from the Hindu dominated region of Jammu. J&K police in its chargesheet filed in April, attributed the crime to communal bigotry, evoking massive outrage across India.

The victim’s father said advocate Deepika Singh Rajawat had “appeared only two or three times” in the court. “She has been saying that there is threat to her life but she did not give the family any evidence to her claim. The parents are already so devastated by the rape and murder of their daughter. Rajawat’s self-promotion at their child’s expense is the last thing they want,” the family friend said.