SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to hand over the probe into the alleged rape and murder of two women at Shopian to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Finance Minister Abdur Rahim Rather told the Assembly on Wednesday that the government intended “handing over the case to the CBI after consultation with the High Court.”
Earlier in the day, angry members drew attention to Tuesday’s report in The Hindu, which broke news that samples submitted by a Jammu and Kashmir Police Special Investigation Team for DNA tests had been fabricated.
Forensic experts at the New Delhi-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory determined that the samples, on which the rape investigation was based, had been obtained from women other than the victims.
Speaker Akbar Lone suspended question hour in the morning to allow a special debate on the DNA fabrication.
People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti initiated the debate by reading from the report in The Hindu, and argued that the government was complicit in a cover-up.
Despite repeated requests from the Speaker, Ms. Mufti did not commit herself on which agency her party wanted the DNA fabrication issue investigated. “Investigating agencies do not matter; it is the government’s intentions which matter,” she said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.Y. Tarigami, however, demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI. He was joined by National Conference MLAs Saifullah Mir, Sajjad Kitchloo and Nazir Gurezi.
Demanding to know who was responsible for the forensic fabrication, Mr. Tarigami pointed to a series of errors in the investigative process. For a transparent investigation, the services of an independent agency were necessary. “The CBI may have its faults, but it is the premier investigation agency and has the resources necessary to get to the truth,” he said.
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