[Reader-list] Shopain ( kashmir ) Murder and Rape

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Inder ji

When I asked you for whether there was any evidence or any thing against the
report legally, here's a fact which seems in my mind as doubtful, which has
been raised by the CBI report.

Here it is, along with the article:

http://telegraphindia.com/1091216/jsp/frontpage/story_11871616.jsp

Shockers in CBI report
- Doctor claimed she used own smear: Agency  MUZAFFAR RAINA

*Srinagar, Dec. 15: *The CBI report in the Shopian case has sucked six
doctors — most of them alumni of a prestigious medical college — into a
maelstrom rarely seen in India.

Among the listed charges — so incendiary that a court-imposed media gag was
in place till yesterday — is a claim that a doctor at one point told the CBI
that she had used her own vaginal smear in an attempt to reaffirm the
perception that two women were raped and murdered at Shopian in Kashmir.

The central investigative agency had concluded in the chargesheet-cum-report
that the two women had drowned — a claim greeted with incredulity and
violence in the Valley today.

If the CBI report springs any hole under microscopic scrutiny, the charges
levelled have the potential to ignite an unparalleled scandal that will put
the country’s investigation system under global glare.

Perhaps aware of the implications, the CBI has included exhaustive details
in its report.

Referring to the deposition of Nighat Shaheen, a 40-year-old lady doctor,
the CBI report says: “Dr Nighat has not truthfully revealed the source of
the vaginal smears used for making the slides, as she has made false
statements, initially to the effect that the slides had been prepared by her
in Pulwama hospital on 31-5-2009 by using two gloves lying in the dustbin of
her room, and later that she had prepared them of her own vaginal smear
using a glove lying in the dustbin of her room.”

However, the CBI report adds, the claim was found to be untrue. “The second
statement has also proved to be false as per the report of CFSL (Central
Forensic Science Laboratory), CBI, New Delhi, which did not find any match
between the DNA profiles generated from the blood samples obtained from
Nighat and her husband, and those present on the slides.”

Shopian, 50km from Srinagar, used to be part of Pulwama – where Nighat
worked – before becoming a separate district. Shopian has been on the boil
since May 29, when the two women were reported missing and later found dead.

Five of the chargesheeted doctors — Ghulam Mohammad Paul, 59, then chief
medical officer of Pulwama, Ghulam Qadir Sofi, 56, then deputy medical
superintendent, Bilal Ahmad Dalal, 40, assistant surgeon, Mohammad Maqbool
Mir, 54, then district health officer and Nighat — have graduated from the
prestigious Government Medical College in Srinagar. Nighat is also a
postgraduate in gynaecology. The sixth, Nazia Hassan, 30, completed her MBBS
from the premier SKIMS Medical College in Srinagar.

Bilal and Nazia were posted at the Shopian district hospital on May 30, when
the bodies of Neelofar, 22, and her sister-in-law Asiya, 17, were brought
for post-mortem. The CBI charges the two doctors with submitting four
different post-mortem reports.

The CBI report accuses the other four of fabricating evidence. “…It has been
conclusively established… that the slides sent for scientific examination
were fabricated by Dr Nighat with active connivance of Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi,
Dr Maqbool Mir and Dr Ghulam Mohammad Paul…. Dr Nighat Shaheen was examined
repeatedly on the issue of the source of the slides but she did not reveal
it,” says the report.

On the basis of the fabricated evidence, five policemen were jailed but the
CBI has given them a clean chit.

The investigations say Bilal and Nazia had claimed to have performed a
floatation test of lungs but the viscera showed they were pieces of heart.
“…the piece of viscera preserved by Dr Bilal as lungs of Neelofar has
actually been found to be of pieces of heart,” says the report.

The government has already suspended Bilal and Nighat. Paul has retired and
Nazia has resigned.

One of the accused doctors, who refused to be named, said: “There was
(sexual) assault on the ladies. I wanted to be part of the exhumation but
they (CBI) refused. The slides were not fudged but made from the gloves used
on those ladies. The CBI has tortured me all through.”
  [image: Top]<http://telegraphindia.com/1091216/jsp/frontpage/story_11871616.jsp#top>