Handwara row: Girl records statement before CJM

Srinagar, April 17: The girl, who is at the centre of the Handwara molestation storm, has recorded her statement before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in which she stood by her earlier statement that she was not molested by any army soldier on Tuesday, April 12.

The girl along with her father was presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Handwara last evening and her statement was recorded, police said in a statement.

"In her statement before the Judicial Magistrate she reveals that on 12-04-2-16, after school hours while proceeding to her home along with her friends she entered in a public lavatory near main chowk Handwara for answering the call of nature. "As soon as she came out of the lavatory, she was confronted, assaulted and dragged by two boys and her bag was snatched among whom one boy was in school uniform," the police said.

The cops presented the girl before the Chief Judicial Magistrate following orders by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court yesterday on a petition filed by the mother of the girl.

The petition was seeking release of the girl, her father and aunt who are in police custody since the day when the allegations of molestation resulted in violent protests in Handwara town.

The mother yesterday claimed that her daughter, who is 16 years old, was pressurised into making the statement that had exonerated the army personnel of the molestation charge. "The production of the girl along with her father before the learned CJM also complies with the order of the Hon ble High Court," the police statement said.

Three persons were killed in security forces firing on protestors in Handwara town on Tuesday. Another youth was killed in Drugmulla area of Kupwara during protests against the Handwara incident a day later.

In fresh violence on Friday, 18-year-old Arif Hussain Dar was killed while three others sustained bullet injuries when army opened fire to disperse stone-pelting protestors outside a camp in Nathnusa area of Kupwara, 100 kms from here.

PTI