A shocking new development in the Kathua rape case has emerged, which could challenge the entire premise of the case. One of the witnesses in the Kathua rape case who had also claimed to be the girl’s father has finally accepted that he was in fact not the real father of the girl. According to the defence lawyer AK Sahni, the witness who was acting as the father had set up a Jammu & Kashmir Bank account which was used to collect funds in the name of the victim. The witness who pretended to be the father had posted several photos of himself with the victim’s face and had used social media to gain the public’s trust and sympathy. During the course of the court proceedings, the said man agreed to having faked the identity of the girl’s father in order to receive funds coming from all over India in the victim’s name. The man in question also divulged the information that he had done so on the behest of a local leader from Jammu. The local leader from Jammu has many cases pending against him, the most recent one was filed by the leader’s wife and children. The case filed in Samba against him was filed by his wife alleging domestic violence, the demand of dowry, and attempt to murder.
The Kathua rape and murder case had shaken the country to its core a few months back. The people of the country, after initially supporting the movement to demand justice for the minor victim and her family members, had grown disillusioned after developments in the case gradually came to light. First, the witnesses from the Kathua area had accused the Jammu and Kashmir police of harassment in order to extract witness statements from them. Then came the case of police personnel with shady pasts being involved in the investigation process. It was followed by the friends of one of the accused claiming harassment during the investigation. After this, Talib Hussain, the local leader who had been at the forefront for demanding justice for the girl child, was accused of crimes against his own family by his wife and his father-in-law. In addition to it, Amar Ujala broke the news that the girl’s father was in fact not related to her. Everything seems fabricated in the case today.
It appears that the Kathua rape case was a larger plot where the motive was to frame one family in such a gruesome incident that they would not be able to recover from it in years. Talib Hussain, the local leader and all the other people who had carried out this drama for months at an end and converted it into an anti-Hindu and anti-India narrative, were following a script. One should not feel surprised if in the coming days a competent investigation team finds that the rape and subsequent murder were committed not by the current accused but by someone else altogether. He or she whosoever they might be are still absconding and they need to be found, which is why a CBI enquiry is necessary. The Jammu and Kashmir police are incompetent and have messed up the whole case. A thorough inquiry is needed and one should also applaud the court and the defense lawyers for peeling off the layers of fabrication, one by one.