Kathua rape-murder: Mehbooba seeks fast track court, sacks accused cops
Jammu, April 14: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who also holds the Home portfolio, on Saturday terminated the services of four policemen accused in the rape and murder of a minor in Kathua district.
The Chief Minister also wrote to the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, seeking a fast track court to conclude within 90 days the trial in the case that has caused a nation-wide outrage, official sources said here.
Informed sources said the state government terminated the services of a sub-inspector, a head constable and two Special Police Officers (SPOs) accused in the crime.
The development comes a day after the resignation of two Bharatiya Janata Party ministers in the coalition government -- Chaudhry Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga -- who had attended rallies in support of the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.
Mehbooba Mufti is in Srinagar to meet party legislators and senior ministers to discuss the future course of action on the case.
The minor girl from the Bakerwal community was kidnapped on January 10; taken to a temple in Rasana village in Kathua district.
Her attackers, which included temple official and policemen, drugged and gang raped her over days before finally killing her and dumping her body in a forest nearby, seven days later.
The girl was attacked to scare away the nomadic Muslim community out of the village.
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ECI website faces outage amid vote counting in Jharkhand, Maharashtra
New Delhi: Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.
Visitors visiting the site were met with non-functional links and a generic “counting in progress” message, leaving them without updated election data. The ECI has not issued an official explanation for the disruption.
Vote counting, which began at 8 a.m. with postal ballots, is underway for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 81 in Jharkhand. Early trends suggest a lead for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, currently ahead in 141 seats, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 96. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA is ahead in 43 seats, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is trailing with leads in 33 constituencies.
Additionally, counting is underway for 48 assembly bypolls across 13 states and two parliamentary seats, Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala.
