Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police have arrested three Army soldiers in connection with the abduction and alleged molestation of a girl child from north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Senior superintendent of police, Bandipora, Rahul Malik said three persons – whom he refused to name citing the “sensitive nature” of the case – have been booked in an FIR filed under sections 341 (wrongful restraint) 363 (kidnapping) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offence) at Ajas police station.
“I can’t disclose the names of the accused since the victim is a minor. All the three accused have been arrested and an investigation is underway,” SSP Malik told The Wire.
Sources said the accused have been identified as Subedar Harbachan Singh, Naik Amit Tahkor and Hawaldar Manzoor Ahmed.
Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Twitter that the three persons are “army soldiers” who had tried to abduct the minor girl from Bandipora districts’ Safapora area last week.
Locals in Bandipora have alleged that 3 army men tried to abduct & molest a 9 year old girl.Her family is now being pressurised to withdraw the FIR.Its a complete travesty of justice & an impartial probe must be set up immediately so that they are given the harshest punishment.
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 16, 2021
According to family, the girl child from Bandipora was returning home from private tuitions on February 10 when a Maruti Alto car came to a halt on the road beside her. One of the occupants of the car offered her Rs 500 note but she refused to take it.
“When she tried to run, a soldier, who was in civvies, got down from the car and grabbed her arm. My daughter cried for help,” Abdul Majid, the girl’s father said.
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His daughter’s screams, Majid said, caught the attention of passersby who caught hold of the accused and surrounded the car. “I was out of home for some work. A driver friend who was fortunately present [at the crime scene] recognised my daughter and phoned me,” Majid said.
Majid, a small-time cattle trader who spoke to The Wire over phone, said that by the time he arrived at the scene, a large crowd had gathered around the car which was barely 400 metres from his house. “There were four persons in the car including a Sikh and a local Kashmiri,” said Majid.
“Upon searching the car, the locals found three number plates of three districts. Initially, the men denied working for the Army but an Army officer later arrived at the scene along with other personnel. It was then that the locals decided to hand the soldiers over to the police,” Majid said.
Sources said the police had also recorded the statement of the victim who was a class 4 student at a government-run school. Her two siblings, a brother and a sister, are class nine students.
Majid said the incident has shattered his family and his daughter is traumatised. “She is now scared of coming out of the home and resuming tuitions. After what has happened, I don’t know if she will go to school,” he said.
A day after the incident, some army personnel arrived at Majid’s residence “to carry out a search operation”,
“We had nothing to hide. But I asked my wife and children to come out and let them burn our home. They were trying to pressurise me to withdraw the case,” he said.
Majid said he earned enough to sustain a hand-to-mouth existence, often by working as a labourer at construction sites. “I starve myself sometimes so that my children can get a good education. If the soldiers were there for work, why did they grab my daughter’s arm? What wrong had my child committed to deserve this treatment,” he said.
“I am grateful to the almighty that my daughter was rescued in the nick of time. I don’t know what would have happened if they had succeeded in taking her away,” he said.
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PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also said the family of the nine-year-old girl was “now being pressurised to withdraw the FIR.” “Its a complete travesty of justice & an impartial probe must be set up immediately so that they are given the harshest punishment (sic),” Mufti wrote on Twitter.
However, Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with charges of molestation, as alleged by the girl’s family, has not been included in the FIR.
This is the second such incident from north Kashmir where an army man has been accused of molestation. On December 2, an army trooper was arrested by J&K Police for molesting a 36-year-old woman in the frontier Uri region.
When contacted, the Srinagar-based defence spokesman, Rajesh Kalia, said he had no knowledge about the incident. “I will get back to you with the details as soon as I have them,” he said.
