SRINAGAR: A retired government official and four policemen have been charged over the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The retired official, Sanji Ram, ordered his nephew and a policeman to kidnap the girl, Asifa, in January to terrorize members of her nomadic Bakerwal community into leaving Kathua district in the mainly Hindu Jammu division, according to a court filing.
The girl was heavily sedated, kept in a Hindu temple, and gang-raped by at least three men over the course of four days in mid-January, the police said in the charge sheet made public on Tuesday. She was later strangled and her body was found in the forest near the temple.
One of the three suspected rapists was a policeman. Another officer, Anand Dutta, who was initially in charge of the investigation, took more than $6,000 in bribes to cover up the crime, according to the police.
Dutta even washed the clothes Asifa was wearing at the time of her death to remove any blood or semen stains, they said. He is among a total of eight suspects who have been detained over Asifa’s rape and murder. All eight are Hindu.
Residents of Kathua’s mainly Hindu community, however, claim the men are innocent and have protested against their arrest for months.
The police, in the court filing, said conflicts between local Hindus and Muslim nomads have increased in recent years, with the two communities filing police complaints against each other. Most of the disputes centre around land.
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