Residents violate Section 144, court arrest; police refutes ‘migration’
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Over 200 men, women and children blocked the road in front of the Hiranagar Police Station in Kathua district as a protest against the PDP-BJP government alleging harassment and mass detentions by the Police’s Crime Branch which is probing the killing of an eight-year old girl.
A senior crime branch official denied that there was any harassment caused to the villagers.
The villagers, however, alleged torture and harassment of their children by the crime branch and demanded a CBI probe in the case.
They also demanded the release of scores of villagers including women and Sarpanchs detained by the Police.
Police personnel warned them through loudspeakers that restriction under Section 144 of the CrPc were in place in Hiranagar. However, today, locals assembled and held protest. They were court arrested and later released. Residents of village Rasana had alleged detention, torture and harassment of their children by the crime branch.
Villagers, including women and young children, were living under constant fear due to random detention of young children in the name of questioning and refused to return to their native village, they alleged.
Hundreds of people of adjoining villages joined them to express solidarity.
Vijay Sharma, president of an organisation called the Hindu Ekta claimed the villagers did not have faith in the crime branch.
He said that the families of Rasana village and many families from the adjoining Dhamyal village have been living under constant fear.
Sharma said that they want in-depth investigation to punish the culprits involve in the case but harassment and torture and repeated detention cannot be tolerated.
The body of the minor girl from the Bakerwal community was found from a forest area in Rasana village on January 17 after she
went missing for a few days.
J&K government ordered a crime branch probe and three persons, including two Special Police Officers and a juvenile, have been arrested so far.
Crime Branch, said it was a part of investigation to call people for questioning and denied any harassment. Crime Branch has so far arrested only three persons and no other person has been detained”, he said.
Meanwhile, the police has said that some vested interests are trying to communalise the situation to put pressure on the agency investigating the murder of a teenage girl in Kathua and “unfortunately some media organizations have also started playing into the hands of such troublemaking elements.”
Reacting to a news report published in the Daily Excelsior today, a spokesman of the Zonal Police Headquarters Jammu said that as has been misleadingly reported by the said newspaper, no migration has occurred in Hiranagar area and some ladies on the instigation of rumor-mongers and trouble-creators with vested interest had assembled near Higher Secondary School, Kootah and created an unnecessary scene. The ladies, however, returned to their homes on the intervention and assurance of the local administration, he said.
“Unfortunately, some vested interests are desperately trying to polarize the situation in the area around this gruesome criminal act of the murder of an innocent girl,” he said and added that the Police had registered a case FIR No: 10/2018 in Police Station Hiranagar following the abduction and murder of the teenage girl in the area last month. He said the case was then transferred to the Crime Branch which is now investigating it professionally.
“It would have been particularly appropriate for the newspaper to contact the officials of the Crime Branch or local police administration before levelling the wild charges of harassment against the investigating agency,” he said.
Meanwhile, an official spokesman today urged the media to report in a responsible and constructive manner in such sensitive situations in the spirit of professional ethics. He said the media organizations must realize that whatever the circumstances, it pays to keep faith with professionalism and ethics. “We are only playing into the hands of the disruptive elements instead of serving the larger public interest by publicizing such unsubstantiated news reports,” he said and added that it is extremely unfortunate if some of the reputed media organizations in the State also get into the divisive trap not only at the cost of their own credibility, but at the perilous cost of peace, tranquility and stability in the region.
“Instead of trying to influence the investigation on the behest of trouble-mongers, the media should allow the law and order machinery to work in a dispassionate manner to ensure justice in the case,” he said.
