The Kathua trigger

Sixteen years ago, a Muslim couple's world came crashing down when their daughter and two sons died in a road accident. There was not much time to mourn, though. Like many other Bakarwals, they had to move to the mountains in summers and return to the plains in winters. The nomadic shepherds undertake this biannual migration to ensure they and their animals survive. While the family shuttled between Rasana village in Jammu's Kathua and the hills in Kashmir, year after year, the deep sense of loss did not leave the woman.

Eight years later, there was some joy. The man's sister, who lived in Jammu's Samba, gave birth to a girl. The Bakarwals were ecstatic. They considered her a God's gift. It was soon decided that the Kathua couple would adopt the child. Everyone grew fond of her. The aunt began to heal. She still had two sons. She now found her daughter.

The child called her foster mother ami. As she grew, she started helping in daily chores and ran errands for her. She liked her pet dog Billu the most. She would take the horses — Sunder was her favourite — and sheep to grazing lands every day.

She was wearing a purple kurta with yellow flower print when she went out around noon on January 10. Sunder and other animals returned home. She did not.

A worried family approached police the next morning but its complaint was not accepted. It again visited the police station the next day. Finally, a case was registered and two policemen visited the village. The family searched for the girl everywhere possible. On January 17, police came again but only after a Gaddi (Hindu pastoral nomad) saw her crumpled body that lay face down behind an old pink temple — not far from the family's two-room house. The body bore marks of brutal physical violence.

It was only about 10 days ago that anger, shock and protests started sweeping India when chilling details emerged of how the child had been kidnapped, drugged, raped and battered to death in captivity. She was held without food in the temple, allegedly by retired government official Sanjhi Ram. He, his juvenile nephew, his son Vishal Jangotra, the nephew's friend Parvesh Kumar, sub-inspector Anand Dutta, head constable Tilak Raj and two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Kumar were part of the crime.

Jangotra travelled from Meerut to Jammu to satisfy his lust after the juvenile called him. The juvenile and Khajuria tried to strangle the girl on January 14. The juvenile finally killed her. To ensure she is dead, he hit her head twice with a stone. Both delayed the murder to rape her one last time. Dutta and Raj helped destroy evidence for bribes. They have all been held and put on trial in a local court.

Communal Divide

The case widened communal faultlines. On February 15, Hindu Ekta Manch held a protest march in Jammu in support of the accused. Two BJP ministers in Mehbooba Mufti's government had to quit two months later for backing the move. This followed widespread condemnation of local lawyers who tried to obstruct the filing of the chargesheet and struck work that forced the Supreme Court to step in. The court has ordered security to the family and its lawyers who have sought the case trial be shifted from Jammu to Chandigarh.

"We combed the jungles. We went past the temple a few times, but didn't go inside because you don't expect anyone to keep a girl on such premises. We later learnt that Ram's nephew had taken her along. She was first kept in an animal shed. They later took her inside the temple," says the aunt.

Planned Crime

The victim's family had purchased land and built its house a few years ago. There are only 40-50 Bakarwal families in a clutch of villages. But their presence has been resented for years by locals who say their animals damage their crops. Ram was against the settlements in Rasana, Kootah and Dhamyal areas, and provoked locals against them, says the chargesheet.

He extorted money from Bakarwals on flimsy grounds. Khajuria also had scuffles with them. "A particular community believed the Bakarwals are involved in cow slaughter and drug trafficking. Several FIRs had been lodged by both sides," says a police officer. The chargesheet says the girl's abduction, rape and murder were planned crimes.

The entire Bakarwal community in Kathua is shaken and has started an early migration to the mountains. "They are not waiting even for transport. They fear anything can happen to anyone," says social activist Talib Hussain.

Both foster and biological parents have also left. Billu would go to the jungles to look for the eight-year-old. One morning, the pet left and did not return. Outside the empty house, where the girl lived, sit idle policemen. Her grave is in a nearby village. Locals refused to give land for her burial.

The biological parents, who have a son and a daughter, had decided to bring the girl home because her aunt had substantially overcome the trauma of losing her kids. Both families had discussed this. "We had decided to admit her to a school. Everything is gone now. We left because we were in fear. People were threatening that if anything happened to the accused, they would not spare us," says the biological father.

The Counter

Ankur Sharma, the counsel for Ram and five other accused, says they have been framed. "This is the first chargesheet that has political overtones. It says that the intention of the accused was to drive out an entire community. The Crime Branch has no business writing all this," he says. The families of the accused want a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to 'unravel the truth'. "We also want justice for the little girl," says Ram's daughter Madhu Sharma.