SRINAGAR: The infamous rape and murder case in south Kashmir town of Shopian was Wednesday handed over to the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier investigating agency.
The development comes in the wake of the failure of a special investigation team to arrest the culprits after three months of investigation and the announcement of cash reward of two million Indian rupees to anyone who could provide vital clues.
The rape and murder of 17-year-old Asiya Jan and her 22-year-old sister-in-law Neelofar Jan kept the Shopian town and rest of the valley on the boil for over two months in which clashes between police and protesters claimed two lives and left scores of others wounded.
The economic loss of the agitation is estimated in millions.
The case, however, took a controversial turn after the central forensic science laboratory to which the vaginal swabs of the two victims had been sent for DNA matching reported that the samples had been fudged.
The case took another turn Tuesday evening when Mohammad Hussain Zargar, a prominent activist of the Shopian action committee constituted to spearhead the agitation in the town, was found murdered in an orchard.
A team of doctors and forensic experts Wednesday morning conducted autopsy on the body of 42-year-old Zargar, the findings of which were yet to be made public.
On Wednesday, the Shopian town observed a complete shutdown over the mysterious death of Zargar.
Thousands of people joined Zargar’s funeral in the town this afternoon.
Meanwhile, separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who had been arrested under the draconian public safety act (PSA) was released by the authorities Wednesday evening, following quashing of the detention order by the high court. Geelani was arrested in June this year in the wake of the Shopian protests.
