Shopian rape, murder: SP among five suspended

SRINAGAR: Heads started rolling on the recommendations of a one-man probe panel into the Shopian rape and murder case with Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday suspending four policemen, including the then SP.

The fifth person to face action was an official of the forensic science laboratory.

The then Superintendent of Police Javed Iqbal, deputy SP Rohit Basgotra, SHO Shafiq Ahmed and a Sub-Inspector were suspended on the basis of the Justice (retd) Muzzafar Jan Commission recommendations, highly placed sources said.

The panel held the police responsible for "destroying evidence" and said the "needle of suspicion" pointed towards their involvement in the crime.

Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda has deputed IG(CID) Farooq Khan to conduct a probe into the lapses as pointed out by the panel in its interim report submitted to chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The Commission, set up after massive protests rocked the valley over the May 30 incident, however, remained silent over the cause of the death of the two women, but said "...the way police tried to destroy evidence, the needle of suspicion pointed towards them."

Sources said Justice Jan also recommended action against some civil and medical officials of Shopian district for lapses in the conduct of the probe into the rape and murder of Neelofar Jan (22) and her sister-in-law Asiya (18) on the intervening night of May 29 and 30.

FSL's scientific officer Javed, who was also suspended, has been found guilty of cross-checking the post-mortem report of the two women.

The Commission was of the view that the conduct of some of the officials, including doctors who conducted the first post-mortem on the victims and the FSL officer, led to the loss of crucial evidence.

The Commission, which was appointed by chief minister Omar Abdullah on June 3, submitted the interim report to the state government after examining more than a dozen witnesses, including the then SP who was grilled for nearly six hours to explain his conduct in the case.

He was questioned as to why he did not attend to the case personally when the bodies of the victims were recovered and did not register an FIR.

The FSL official was asked to explain why he did not counter-sign the report of the samples taken from the victims prepared by his laboratory, which was mandatory for processing the reports. The official had reportedly not initialled the report for at least two days, thus delaying investigations.

The government transferred the Deputy Commissioner Shopian within three days of the incident, while a week later the SP was also shifted.