FRONT PAGE | Monday, October 12, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Another ‘killing’, another disgrace for J&K cops
Mohit Kandhari | Jammu
After the Shopian rape-cum-murder and Amandeep killing case, there is another taint on khaki in Jammu & Kashmir. The State cops are being held responsible for alleged torture and killing of a Hindu youth in police custody in Srinagar.
A newly-wedded Valley woman, who married the Jammu youth, is alleging that her family and police joined hands to eliminate her husband in police custody. The woman is a Muslim.
Jammu-based businessman Rajneesh Sharma was found hanging inside the lock-up bathroom of the Munshi Bagh police station on October 5, 2009. Sharma had been picked up by the Kashmir police on September 30 from the Jammu residence of his elder brother, Pawan Sharma, who is an employee of the State Road Transport Corporation.
An eerie silence prevailed in the Valley over the alleged custodial death, but Jammu has been seething in anger for the past four days. Sharma’s family members cried foul when they saw signs of brutal assault on his body. Suspicions grew stronger over the police role when Sharma’s family members discovered that the Munshi Bagh police station had recorded the name of Pawan Sharma, Rajneesh’s elder brother, as the person who was found dead inside the lock-up on October 5, 2009.
Demanding a fresh post-mortem examination, the family refused to cremate the body till the guilty were punished. Sharma had married Amina Yousaf, the daughter of Mohd Yousaf, after she converted to Hinduism on August 21, 2009. Her family members had opposed the marriage and the decision to change her religion.
An FIR was lodged by Amina’s parents alleging abduction of their minor daughter by the Jammu-based family. Before performing the last rites of Sharma on Saturday, Amina — who has since rechristened herself as Aanchal — alleged that her brothers had kidnapped her husband from Jammu on September 30 with the help of Kashmir police. Though aware that they were taking Rajneesh Sharma with them, they mentioned the name of Pawan Sharma in police records to mislead the probe.
“My father, who works with the Vigilance department, knows how to armtwist the law…. He must have bribed the policemen to kill my husband,” Aanchal alleged. “My parents killed my husband. My brothers were also involved in the crime as they were all opposed to my relationship. Within a month of my marriage, I became a widow because of my own family. They brutally tortured my husband and killed him in cold blood,” a wailing Aanchal murmured before the cremation.
Meanwhile, the State Government late on Friday conceded the demands of Sharma’s angry family, after which the family and relatives performed Sharma’s last rites. “We have agreed to provide employment and ex-gratia relief to the family, besides promising an impartial magisterial probe that would be taken to its logical conclusion,” a Government spokesperson said.
The State police chief has also placed the Munshi Bagh police station SHO under suspension after allegations of assault and murder were levelled against the police.
Earlier, the police image was tarnished in the Shopian twin rape-cum-murder case and recently in the Amandeep killing case, where a former SSP of Jammu and five others — including the SP and an SHO — were suspended after facing charges of destroying crucial evidence in the murder case.
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