Call For CBI Probe In Kathua Rape Case Justified, Says Bar Council Panel

New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir lawyers did not obstruct justice in the Kathua rape case and their demand for a CBI investigation into the matter is "justified" the Bar Council of India told the Supreme Court today. The Council said these were the conclusions of a probe team it sent to the state. The team, led by a retired High Court judge, has submitted a report that gave a clean chit to the lawyers. 

The top court had earlier pulled up the Jammu lawyers for obstructing the legal process. On April 13, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the lawyers of Jammu and Kathua bar associations preventing the police from entering the court and preventing the family's lawyer from appearing in the case.

The protest by the lawyers had been one of the key fallouts of the shocking gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old child in the state, that has triggered a nationwide outrage.

The state police said the child was subjected to horrific tortures to scare off the nomadic Bakerwal community, to which she belonged, from Jammu's Hindu majority areas.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the case, however, triggered a backlash, with a groundswell of support for the accused. It was alleged that the state's lawyers' were a part of that section and had not allowed the filing of chargesheet in the case.  

Deepika Rajawat, who is representing the child's family, complained that members of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association had threatened her, demanding that she does not appear in the case.

Denying her allegations, the Jammu High Court Bar Association has told the Supreme Court that her statements are "contradictory".

The association also said they were being unfairly portrayed as communal in the national media. Their demand for a CBI inquiry was meant to ensure justice in the case and their protest was against the illegal presence of Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals in Jammu.

The Supreme Court will hear the matter again on April 30.