HORRIFIC GANGRAPE & MURDER OF 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL: A TIMELINE

In what took the country by storm, an 8-year-old girl (though the names of the girl and her family are now open, we have decided not to mention the same as she and her family are being victimised) was brutally gang-raped and murdered in Kashmir’s Kathua region. The chilling incident sparked a huge outrage in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, what triggered the activists and created outrage was an alleged protest by some Hindu ‘activists’ including two BJP members who defended the people involved in the rape and murder of the girl.

As per the 18-page charge sheet, which was released by several media websites, the news first came to notice, when the victim’s father lodged a complaint on January 12, about his daughter who was missing from January 10.

An initial arrest was made after the complaint, and on January 22, the case was shifted to Crime Branch as the Bakherwal community protested the alleged inefficiency of the government and the local police in handling the case.

Currently, all 8 accused are arrested including the alleged mastermind - Sanji Ram, a 60-year-old revenue official along with his juvenile nephew, who followed the instructions of his uncle. The accused included police officers - Surender Verma, Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Khajuria - who were later accused of tampering the evidence.

According to the chargesheet, the victim was kidnapped by the juvenile when she had gone out to graze the horses. She was then sedated using the medicines that were prescribed to sanji Ram for his psychological treatment, before she was raped, multiple times, by different men. The torture included her being starved and held hostage at a dilapidated temple. 

The chargesheet further said that the heinous crime was carried out with an intent to scare away the Gujjar community from Jammu.

According to reports, she was spared to live longer, so that one of the accused could rape her one more time, before finally being strangled to death. To ‘make sure that she died’, the accused then hit her twice with a stone.

According to multiple reports, a Hindu mob including the likes of lawyers tried to physically stop police from filing FIR against the men accused.

Even though the entire incident by itself is distressing, what's even more humiliating is the fact that lawmakers in charge of governance of the country jumping to the defence of the accused.