On Sunday, 8th July 2017, a lawyer defended some of the accused in the Kathua rape-and-murder case, claiming that “jihadis” are behind the cruel incident and that the body of the body of the eight-year-old girl had been planted to change the religious demography of the Jammu and Kashmir.
Ankur Sharma, one of the lawyers defending the accused in the Kathua rape-and-murder case, for which he didn’t had considerable evidence to support. During district court session at Pathankot, he said Sanji Ram, one of the main accused, had been targeting the nomadic community so that they don’t settle in the village.
He also asked Governor N N Vohra to immediately order a CBI enquiry into the case. On the directions of the Supreme Court and the trial court had already framed charges against the accused.
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Ankur Sharma said the case should be handed over to the CBI because “jihadis have committed the murder and planted the body there and the murder has been committed to change the religious demography of the area.”
In May this year, Ankur Sharma along with other defence lawyers had approached the Supreme Court for handing over of the case to the CBI. However, the request was turned down and the top court instead ordered shifting of trial to Pathankot in Punjab from the Kathua sessions court.
In February this year, Ankur Sharma also demanded revocation of the minutes of a meeting chaired by former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti alleging that the order of the ministry of tribal affairs was still in force to ensure “demographic changes” in Hindu-majority areas of Jammu.
It is declared as per orders that nomads, who keep on flocking their sheep in Jammu in winter months and Kashmir during summer, can build their temporary shelters on government lands.
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