JK PANORAMA VOL 4 ISSUE 5 MAY

Rape of Minor in Kashmir:
Allegation Which Sparked Protests Negated by Medical Report
Photo Nasir Khan
P News
Two weeks after the incident, the medical
report by SKIMS medical college,
Bemina, has found insufficient
evidence to confirm that the three-year-old was
sexual assaulted.
On the evening of May 12 in Kashmir's
Bandipora area, when the news about the
alleged rape of three-year-old girl broke, locals
took to the streets in protest.
On May 13, protests and clashes erupted across
the Valley as people marched and demanded a
death sentence for the accused. Dozens of
youth were injured.
However, two weeks after the incident, the
medical report by SKIMS medical college,
Bemina, has found insufficient evidence to
confirm that the child was sexual assaulted.
SKIMS, in its report submitted to Jammu and
Kashmir Police, has stated that there were no
marks of injury on any part of the body, thus
contradicting the claims of the girl's mother.
Making the case murkier, last week, the police
said that the allegations of rape in the case had
been proven and that a charge sheet would be
filed soon.
The accused, Tahir Mir, has already been
booked under Protection of Children from
Sexual Offences (POCSO) Section 3 and 5 and
376 A, B and 342 RPC.
The rape accused, as per the victim's family,
allegedly committed the crime during iftar,
when most of the villagers were at home or at
the mosque.
The mother, who found her daughter bleeding
vaginally in a bathroom, said that she had
handed over the blood drenched clothes of the
girl to the Jammu and Kashmir Police at the
time when the accused was arrested.
The medical report, which is with The Wire,
states that the actual source of bleeding could
not be determined as there was no evidence of
any injury around the vaginal orifice.
“The blood stains were not dry blood but faint
stains only and could not be scraped and sent
for examinations,” the report reads.
“It is very difficult to cause full penetration into
the vagina without causing any major injury/
tear/bleeding in a three-year-old child,” the
report adds.
The case has had a greater impact on the locals
in the area, reportedly deepening the Shia
Sunni divide, so much so that the family of the
accused has left their village.
Since the allegation surfaced, the Shia-Sunni
coordination committee of religious scholars
also appealed to the people to maintain calm
and end protests as “police had nabbed the
culprit”.
As many as 12 people were injured in the
massive protests. One person, Arshid Ahmad
Dar, who was critically injured, later
succumbed to his injuries at a Srinagar hospital.
19
May 2019