KATHUA: CHAPTER 1

Disclaimer: This story is based on true incidents that happened in the Kashmir region of India. The story doesn't claim the accuracy or factuality of the events. For the respect of the victim, I have taken creative liberty to change the name, places, and dates and merge many incidents into one fictional timeline. The purpose of this story is not to hurt anyone but to tell the tragic story of a victim in the larger interest of humanity and justice.

January 10, 2018

Jammu AND Kashmir

In Rasana (near Kathua), there lived a couple, Mahmud Asif Pujwala and Zareena. They have an eight-year-old small girl, Afreen. But she's not their own daughter. Since their two daughters died in a car accident, they adopted Zareena's brother Imran's daughter, Afreen.

Afreen likes horses very much, and Asif had goats, cows, and horses in his house. With that money, their family looked after the expenses. Afreen's work is to take the horses to graze and bring them back home. She did that work with love, and that day she also took the horses for grazing.

At 4 in the evening, the horses started to return home one by one. At one stage, all the horses returned home. But Afreen didn't return home. Zareena was scared and said this to Asif, and he took some people with him.

Normally, when you hear about Kashmir, what comes to mind? Some of them will think about green lands, mountains, and, at the same time, dangerous valleys. This will all come to mind, and they will feel like at least they must go there once in their lifetime. Some of them will think about fights, terrorist attacks, Pandit genocide, and bomb blasting sites with no peace. But for me, for the last few years, when I heard about Jammu and Kashmir, this 8-year-old girl, Afreen, and the Kashmiri Pandit woman, Girija Tickoo, only came to mind. In 2018, not only Kashmir but the whole of India was talking about Afreen. In fact, even powerful countries and the United Nations talked about her.

Even though Jammu and Kashmir is a union territory now, until 2019 it was just a state, and there are lots of differences between Jammu and Kashmir. Land, community, custom, and lifestyle—like this, there are lots of differences. In Jammu, the majority of people are Hindus, and in Kashmir, the majority of people are Muslims. Even though in Jammu Hindu people are high, in Kathua district there are nomadic Muslim Bakarwal community people. (Even though they don't stay in a particular place, in this Kathua region they will take lands for six months lease and graze their goats and cows there.)

Likewise, Asif and Zareena of the Bakarwal community will take the land for lease and graze their goats and cows with that amount. When it was like this one day, at 12:30 PM, to look after the horses that went for grazing, Afreen went there enthusiastically and happily.

After that, even though the horses that went for grazing came home, Afreen didn't return home. Some of them had seen Afreen at 2 in the afternoon. But after that, no one saw her. Asif and others searched the forest the whole night. It's of no use, and they couldn't find the child anywhere.

As per their final belief, Asif went to a police station and filed a complaint in Heera Nagar. But the police didn't take the complaint and asked them to come the next day. At that time, the family couldn't understand why the police were behaving like this. Afreen's parents, who didn't expect this answer from the police, felt heartbroken and started searching for their child again.

They went to the police station again the next day, on January 12, 2018. But the police said, "Your daughter might have run away with someone. Go and check whether any boy is missing."

Asif felt heartbroken. As they were saying horrible things about an 8-year-old girl. Without any choice, they returned home. Since the police were very careless, Asif called their relatives and started to protest on the highway.

Without any choice, they appointed Deepan and one other for this case. Even though there's not even a slight improvement in this case. Since they didn't get any information about their daughter, Afreen's parents experienced hell every day.

On January 17, 2018, Asif sat sadly in front of the house as one of the neighbours ran towards him. He said to him that they had found his daughter. But before he felt happy, that neighbour said that Afreen's body was found in the forest bush.

Asif, who was shocked, said that he knew something had happened to his daughter and ran there. Behind him, Zareena also ran there, screaming Afreen's name. One kilometer away from their house, in one of the bushes in the forest, Afreen's body was found.

Even the stone will cry if it sees Afreen's dead body. It was that horrible. Both of her legs were broken. Her body was filled with blood, her nails were black, and her body turned blue. Mud and blood were mixed in her dress.

Afreen's head was smashed and her neck was strangled. Her private parts were horribly destroyed. Seeing this, everyone's heart stopped for a second. They thought that it should be a bad dream, and immediately the police came to know about it.

They sent Afreen's body to the district government hospital for an autopsy. Forensic officers collected all the evidence from the crime scene. Even after her body was found, the police didn't show any interest in that case. On January 22, 2018, this case was changed to the crime branch, which is under the state government, and they found three witnesses through a strong investigation.

But SIT officer Deepak tortured the villagers under the pretext of questioning, and the people were fleeing their homes in fear. Fed up, three witnesses in the Kathua Rape Case alleged torture by the Jammu & Kashmir Police while recording their statements and filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court. The matter was presented before the Chief Justice of India, who agreed to list the petition for Wednesday, May 16th.

The petitioners are classmates of one of the accused, Vinod Jangotra, and were summoned by the Police as witnesses. They said: "We were coerced to make statements contrary to the fact that Vinod was with them at Miranpur, Muzzafar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, from January 7, 2018, to February 10, 2018." They further added, "During that period, he, along with petitioners, attended examinations and practical papers."

The petitioners claimed that they were abused, humiliated, and beaten for stating their version of events and asserted that they gave true statements before the learned Magistrate Jammu under Section 164A of the J&K Criminal Procedure Code.

They said: "We experienced physical and mental torture by the J&K Police from March 19th to March 31st, 2018. Villagers were also tortured by the J&K Police crime department under the pretext of questioning and were fleeing their homes in fear."

One of the witnesses said, "Sir. Vinod Jangotra was spotted in Muzaffarnagar withdrawing money from an ATM around the time the rape took place. He appeared for his university exams."

An investigation team will investigate whether Vinod really appeared for his exams or if a dummy appeared for the exams on his behalf.

However, the locals are not convinced about the legitimacy of the investigation conducted into the rape and have dubbed it filmy Kahani'.

There are many questions from the villagers doing the rounds, which raise fingers at the charge sheet produced by the police.

1. If the body was discovered on the 17th of January, how was it that the body did not emanate any foul smell even after three days?
2. Why did no one spot the body while on their way to Devasthan, especially on January 16, when they visited the shrine in large numbers?
3. Why, in the cold of January, did the body not become stiff? Villagers claim that when they saw the body at a protest staged by Bakarwals, it was limp.
4. Why would Sanji Ram's sister send her minor son to stay with him if she knew that her brother would deploy her son to carry out this heinous crime?
5. Why would the key conspirator leave the body just outside Devasthan even on the day of Fanda, when scores of people came and feasted in the Bhandara? Why didn't he simply dig up the earth and bury the body? The charge sheet says the accused washed the girl's clothes to destroy evidence, but why would he just stop at that and not make any efforts to hide the body?
6. How was it that the girl in Devasthan on January 13, when lots of people visited the place on the day of Lohri, was spotted by none? We picked up dares from the table under which allegedly the girl was hidden and placed them on the floor to sit and sing devotional songs. There is no chance a girl is kept under the table and no one sees it," said Bishan Das, a 76-year-old Rassana resident who retired as a subedar from the Army.
7. How could Sanji Ram's son, Vinod Jangotra, be in Meerut and Kathua at the same time? The crime branch investigation places Vinod in Rasana, while the college records show that he was giving exams in Meerut.
8. The charge sheet mentions that the juvenile hit the girl with a stone twice and "killed her by pressing his knees against her back and strangulating the girl by applying force on both ends of her chunni." However, according to the medical reports, the "victim had been kept without food and administered sedatives, and her cause of death was asphyxia leading to cardiopulmonary arrest." Which one is it?
9. The charge sheet says the investigation team found a hair strand in the Devasthan. If the girl was kept for days in the room, how come the cops found only a strand of hair there?
10. How come the mastermind who was supposed to have carried out the grand conspiracy turned out to be a nincompoop? When he spent lakhs bribing local cops to cover it all up, why couldn't he arrange a vehicle to bury or hide the body? Why, of all the places in the entire jungle, would he choose to throw the body in the open, barely a stone's throw away from his home, at a spot from where his house is the nearest and thus most vulnerable to suspicion?

This, in brief, is why villagers believe there is "a conspiracy from outside" and are alleging that "the girl was killed and dumped in Rasana".

Moreover, there are two major facts that make villagers believe that this was a "conspiracy from outside" and that innocents are being framed in this.

Conspiracy 1:

According to a villager named Bishan Das, the village transformer went bust on January 16th, and a motorcycle was spotted around 3 a.m."The men riding the bike had wrapped 'kambal' around their bodies." It was cold. I could not sleep after this. Some 25–30 minutes later, the bike returned and left the village," says Das, whose house is at the entrance of the village. Villagers believe the bikers threw the body at the site themselves.

Journalist Swati Goel Sharma, who brought this ground report to the fore, tweeted a video of a villager.

Conspiracy 2:

The girl's body was sent to Kathua district hospital for an autopsy on the afternoon of January 17. Villagers say that activist lawyer Talib Hussain was also present. How did he reach Kathua from "his hometown, Poonch, in a matter of hours", the villagers asked. Swarajya spoke to many residents of Kootah and Rasana villages, and all confirmed that Sanji Ram's name was indeed taken on the 17th itself. How was the name of the accused taken before even the final investigation had begun?

The villagers feel that their reputation is being tainted by spreading false rumours and allegations. The vicious campaign is now targeting the entire Hindu community. 

"We have seen WhatsApp and Facebook posts that depict condoms on Shivaji's Trishul, with the girl's dead body on one spike. It's disgraceful how their focus has changed from demanding justice for the little girl to maligning the whole community. Are our gods and our religious symbols synonymous with rape now?" fumes an angry shopkeeper at Kathua.

Swati Goel Sharma also tweeted a video of the villager whose picture has been circulated as the alleged rapist. He says he is getting threats and fears for his life.

Swati also tweeted a video of a local responding to allegations of being 'defenders of rapists.'

Various demands of the CBI inquiry into the crime were rejected by the Supreme Court, which transferred the case to the Pathankot High Court.

However, a committee of the Bar Council of India (BCI) formed under the direction of the Supreme Court concluded that demands for a CBI inquiry appeared justifiable. The same committee had also concluded that the media had misreported the entire episode and that lawyers of the Jammu Bar Association never sided with the accused while giving them a clean chit. All the accused in the case have pleaded not guilty and have sought a narcotics test.

April 9, 2018

KATHUA COURT

To file a charge sheet on eight people, the police who investigated went there. But the advocates protested against them and prevented them from going to court. Even though they tried hard, they couldn't enter the court. Everyone was supporting the killers.

The police went to the judge's house and filed a charge sheet. Now they started protesting to support the killers. One girl threatened that she would burn herself if they didn't release her. The most shameful thing about this is that in that protest, they had the Indian flag and asked to release the killers.

At the same time, since there's a life-threatening situation for Afreen's family, the court ordered police protection for them. Hence, the Supreme Court changed this case to Punjab State. When this case was investigated, the media and people weren't allowed, and it was ordered that all the investigations be recorded.

All these threats, protests, and common people's support for killers, like this, were confusing to you, right? Usually, they will protest in favour of the victims. (But you may wonder why they are protesting for the killers.)

In the Kathua region, where there are a lot of Hindus, nomadic Muslim Bakarwal community people also live there. To graze their animals, they will lease land from Hindus. Those people who had the habit of taking lease lands from the Hindus saved some money within a few days and started buying lands in that area.

And Afreen's family is one of them. Some particular groups of people didn't like it. They thought of chasing those people away. They said to the Hindu people that they shouldn't give lease lands to the Bakarwal people.

One among them who worked seriously against them was Sanji Ram. He was a retired government officer and also worked as a superintendent of the temple. He had had hatred for the Muslim people for a long time. When it was like that, he noticed Afreen, who was grazing horses regularly there.

He thought of kidnapping and killing that child as revenge. On January 7, 2018, he called his nephew, who is staying with them. His family chased him away since he was wandering recklessly. He was young but aware of everything.

Sanji Ram called him and said, "Hey. A small girl is grazing a horse in the forest near our house. We have to kidnap that eight-year-old small girl, Afreen."

On January 8, 2018, that minor boy started to plan a kidnapping with his friend Parvesh Kumar. The next day, according to their plan, they bought some marijuana and drugs and got ready to execute their plan the next day.

On the afternoon of January 10, that minor boy and his friend saw Afreen in that forest. Without her knowing, they chased the horses in another direction.

After a few minutes, Afreen started searching for her horses. The time is exactly 2 in the afternoon. At that time, they noticed that she was inquiring about a lady. After a while, they went to Afreen and said, "Are you searching for your horses? We know where it is. Come with us. We will show." Like this, they said, and they took her into the forest. When they were taking her, they called Sanji Ram and said that they had kidnapped that girl.

Afreen was scared upon noticing it. Immediately, they beat her head and put marijuana in her mouth. She fainted. Without even considering that it was an eight-year-old girl, they both raped her there themselves. After that, they covered her body with a plastic cover, leaving her face to breathe.

They carried Afreen to the temple, where Sanji Ram was a superintendent. They hid her in the temple. Whenever Afreen came into consciousness, they gave her the drugs.

January 11, 2018

Afreen's father, Asif, who was searching for her everywhere, finally came to Sanji Ram. He said, "She might have gone to her relative's house," and asked him to search properly.

On that same day, that minor boy called his friend and said, "We have an 8-year-old girl. If you have desires, come and rape her." That dog came there the next day.

(Sorry for comparing those grateful beings to them.)

On January 12, he came there from Jammu. Where are Jammu and Kathua in Kashmir? He nearly traveled 81 kilometres and came there for it. When the minor boy's friend came along with Sanji Ram, they went inside the temple and raped Afreen continuously till the night.

After their hunger was over, Sanji Ram said, "It's time for us to finish Afreen." They took Afreen under a small bridge, and before they killed her, a special police force team under Deepak came there. Suddenly, when they saw the police without fear, they smiled at them.

The police officer who came there said, "I also want to rape her." (He also knows everything before.) He is also a culprit in that. (Now you might know why the police behaved like this towards Afreen's parents.)

Deepak raped Afreen, and after that, that small boy again raped her. Now that everything is over, After that, Deepak tried to strangle her. But still, Afreen's life was hanging by a thread.

That small boy took a rock and put it twice on Afreen's head. Now Afreen is dead.

The most horrible thing about this is that to prevent Afreen from running when she gains consciousness, they already broke two legs. If blood and urine are spilled in the temple, they might get caught. They put on a plastic cover and made Afreen lay on it.

In those four to five days, they didn't even give any food to Afreen and kept her unconscious to rape her. When this type of horrible thing was happening in the temple, they were putting pujas in the temple. They hid her smartly in that temple.

Maybe the people in the temple might not know that Afreen is there. But even God doesn't know it.

PRESENT

Meanwhile, Advocate Deepthi Singh Rajawat (appearing for Afreen) was removed by Asif for attending only two out of 110 hearings. However, she lost her cool when people started questioning her apparent lack of commitment to the cause, which got her fame and quite a few awards.

The 'human rights' protector took to Twitter to blame the parents of the eight-year-old rape victim for 'abandoning' her. Deepthi shows off her magnanimity by claiming how she was there with them "when no one was" but now "since the rainy days have passed", they are winding up with her "just because" she could not regularly attend the trial. She attended two out of 110 hearings, skipping 108 hearings. Perhaps she was too busy collecting awards and giving interviews to international publications for her 'great work' of skipping hearings.

And what exactly does she mean by "rainy days"? Is she trying to imply that since the parents got compensation from the general public, who donated out of the goodness in their hearts as well as the government, they no longer need to get justice for their daughter? And very generously, she puts up a disclaimer that she does not blame the grieving parents for removing her due to her lack of attendance. Because it is "the human tendency that travels in genes." Very, very classy, Deepthi. Has she been spending time with a JNU freelance protestor lately? But blaming parents is not the only thing Deepthi has done lately. She implied that the parents themselves are not attending the hearing.

In response to a video of the girl's parents saying they are removing Deepthi as a lawyer because she does not attend hearings, claiming a threat to her life, one Tushar Sharma responded that it is unfortunate for the parents to suffer so much to get justice for their child. Sharma mentioned how the father is visiting the court for all hearings, but every time he gets another date instead of justice.

Deepthi swoops in to question how he knows the father attends the hearing on every date, implying that it was not just her who was not attending the hearings but even the father of the girl. Just a reminder: the girl and her family, biological as well as adoptive, are Bakarwals, a nomadic tribe in Kashmir, and have no permanent settlement. (To question them about why they are not attending their daughter's hearing is again a very classy move, Deepthi. Perhaps they were not attending because they thought the lawyer who had come as a knight in black robes would attend on their behalf and ensure that they got justice. Maybe because the family has to sell up their livestock to travel to Pathankot to attend the hearings?

Deepthi, however, did not just stop blaming the parents. She went ahead and threatened to sue those who questioned her.

There is a striking similarity between Deepthi's reactions and the drunk Irish lady's reaction to the Air India flight. Both threatened to drag those who questioned them to court. (There is a difference between using the law to protect oneself and misusing it just because you could harass another person.)

Meanwhile, the conviction was held for six out of the seven accused in the Kathua murder case. The Pathankot court has pronounced the sentence for the six convicted in the rape and murder of Afreen. The courts have sentenced Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria, and Parvesh Kumar to life imprisonment, while the remaining three—SI Anand Dutta, head constable Tilak Raj, and special police officer Surender Verma—have been sentenced to five years for destruction of evidence.

The District and Sessions Court Judge Tejwinder Singh has handed life imprisonment to Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria, and Parvesh Kumar under Sections 302 (murder), 376D (gang rape), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). They have also been sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment, and all the sentences would run concurrently. These three convicts are also ordered to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lakh each. The seventh accused, Vinod Jangotra, was acquitted of all the charges.

The National Commission for Women has expressed dissatisfaction over the sentencing, saying it is not enough and that they expected capital punishment in the case. NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma said: "The state government should appeal against the verdict seeking the death sentence for the convicted persons."

(The entire Kathua rape case has been murky, and things got messier when self-proclaimed champions of human rights took it upon themselves to get justice for the little girl.)

Meanwhile, Asif has been duped out of the money that was donated to him. The money has been siphoned off his bank account by anonymous people, the father claims.

"Someone has withdrawn more than Rs 10 lakh from our joint account. We have no information about it. The statement shows consistent withdrawals, and we are only left with Rs 35,000 in the account. We were told over Rs 1 crore had been donated from all over the world, but we don't know where it went," he said.

Over Rs. 10 lakhs had been debited within three months, but not by the person to whom the account belonged. One Aslam Khan had withdrawn Rs. 2 lakhs on January 11, 14, 15, and 18. Transactions took place on January 21 and 22 as well, according to the passbook, and Rs. 4 lakhs were withdrawn.

The bank where the account was opened claims that the money was withdrawn through signed and dated checks, so there was little they could do to refuse.

"The bank received the checks with proper dates and impressions." The family can block the checkbook until further notice. Someone within their known circle has had access to all details and ensured bank protocol was followed," said the branch head of J&K Bank. The leaders who had initially flocked to him are nowhere to be found.

"I do not know where those leaders are. Initially, many came and helped. They did not approach me recently," Asif said.

In November last year, the family was forced to sell off their livestock to pay the expenses of traveling from Kargil to Pathankot, where a trial court is hearing the case. The family of the victim had also demanded details of the funds collected for them during a campaign run by social activists in January.

"We have information that lakhs of rupees were collected from different parts of the world by exploiting the incident by some people," the grandfather of the victim had said. "Those who were in the forefront to ensure justice are now even hesitating to attend our phone calls."

Asif realised that the huge sum of funds collected in their name never actually reached them. In the tape, two people are supposedly heard discussing how "huge funds" were collected in the rape victim's name, which never made their way to the family.

Meanwhile, leftist JNU activist Shehla Rashid claimed that funds totaling over Rs. 40 lakhs had been collected from donors. She later also stated that the lawyers are not charging money, and hence a sum of Rs 10 lakhs will be handed over to the rape victim's family.

Though lakhs of rupees were collected in the name of helping the family, the funds never reached them. The JNU student union and many online 'activists' who had campaigned for the Kathua victim had never bothered to hand over the funds to the victim's family.

Asif realised that his family had been used as bait for politics. He sits in agony and frustration.

Kathua: Chapter 2... To Be Continued...