Former BJP leader and founder of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan (DSS) Choudhary Lal Singh on Thursday said the demand for a CBI probe into the rape and murder of a minor girl last year would be the core issue of his party in the Lok Sabha polls.
Singh had launched the DSS on July 22 last year to mark the 100 days of his campaign in support of the demand for a CBI probe into the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl from a nomadic community in Kathua district of Jammu & Kashmir.
Body of the minor was recovered from a forest on January 17, 2018, a week after she went missing from the forest area while grazing horses.
"The demand for CBI probe will be the core issue of this election...We will continue to strive for the probe and take the agitation to its logical conclusion because the incident has put a question mark on secularism in Jammu and image of Dogras," Singh said.
Singh was addressing a well-attended rally at Kootha Morh near the scene of the last year's crime.
The DSS has announced Singh as its candidate from Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency.
The Crime Branch of J&K Police, which investigated the case, arrested eight people, including the alleged mastermind Sanji Ram, in connection with the case which is presently being heard on daily basis in a court in Punjab under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
According to the charge sheet, the girl was allegedly raped in captivity in a village temple and was kept sedated for four days before being bludgeoned to death. Singh, along with his colleague Chander Prakash Ganga, had resigned from the previous PDP-BJP Government on April 13 2018, after uproar over his participation in a rally allegedly in support of the accused.