The unidentified schoolgirl in the alleged molestation that triggered massive violence in Handwara and several parts of north Kashmir and claimed five lives in the police firing on protestors recorded her statement before a magistrate on Sunday and stood by her earlier stand that she was not molested by any Army jawan on Tuesday.
On the direction of the High Court, police on Sunday produced the 16-year-old schoolgirl before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Handwara to record her statement.
The locals had alleged that the girl was misbehaved with by a soldier near a lavatory in the vicinity of a concrete bunker. The incident triggered protests and firing by the security forces. Two youngsters died on the spot and three others died subsequently in a chain of violence.
“The victim girl (name withheld) was produced along with her father before the Chief Judicial Magistrate and her statement was recorded in case FIR Number 130/2016 under Sections 354, 341, 509 RPC of Police Station Handwara,” a police spokesman said.
“In her statement before the CJM, she revealed that on April 12, after school hours while proceeding to her home with her friend she entered a public lavatory near main chowk in Handwara,” the spokesman said.
“As soon as she came out of lavatory, she was confronted, assaulted and dragged by two boys and her bag was snatched. One of the boys was in school uniform,” police statement quoted her as saying before the CJM.
The girl has been in police custody since April 12. On the next day, her father and uncle were summoned by police. Her father too was detained at the police station. On April 12 evening, a video went viral on the social media that showed the girl in school uniform, narrating the same statement.
On the next day, the Defence spokesman in Srinagar circulated the same statement. The Army used the video with an emphasis on the girl’s statement that there was no soldier inside the lavatory when she went there.
A rights group Coalition of Civil Society (CCS) tried to meet the girl through its counsel Parvez Imnroz but police barred them to reach the police station for the meeting. The group later approached the state high court for direction on the issue. The CCS has accused the police of holding the minor girl in illegal confinement and forcing her to record statements under duress. The Police said that the girl has been asked to go home.
Meanwhile, life in most parts of Kashmir started limping back to normalcy after remaining paralysed for five days due to strikes and protests, but restrictions continued as a precautionary measure in Handwara and Kupwara towns where five persons have been killed since Tuesday.
While internet services remained snapped across the valley, train services from Baramulla in Kashmir and Banihal across the Pir Panjal mountain range resumed on Sunday morning after remaining off the tracks for four days.
There were no restrictions in Srinagar on Sunday, which passed off peacefully with no untoward incident reported from anywhere in the valley, a police official said here. He said the restrictions, imposed on Wednesday in six police station areas of the city, were lifted as there were no major protests on Saturday or no call either for a shutdown.