india

Updated: Jun 11, 2019 00:12 IST

The head of the special investigation team (SIT), which probed into the January 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua, said they conducted a thorough professional investigation in the case notwithstanding the challenges.

Ramesh Kumar Jalla, a former senior police superintendent of Jammu and Kashmir police’s crime branch who retired in May, recalled how lawyers assaulted and prevented his team from filing a charge-sheet before a Kathua court in April 2018. The Supreme Court later shifted the trial to Punjab’s Pathankot as the girl’s family and lawyer faced death threats.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, in the then People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led alliance state government, too, joined a protest in support of the accused.

Jalla said attempts were also made to communalise the case. But he underlined that they never faced any pressure from serving or former ministers. However, Jalla said, lower rung leaders attempted to pressurise the team during the course of the investigations.