A few media outlets reported yesterday that the central forensics lab has submitted a report to the Kashmir CB—which is the agency investigating the Kathua crime on Kanjak—that Vishal Jangotra’s signatures did not match, and that he had used it to create a false alibi. Meaning that he was indeed in Kathua, and his signatures were forged by someone else to create the impression that he was in Meerut.

Now, first of all, this does not stand scrutiny, since the ATM video showing Vishal near Meerut is dated the same time as the CB says he was in Kathua. So we have video on one hand, versus some expert’s testimony on whether signatures match on the other. One is an exact science, the other is not. I would rather trust a video with a time stamp over an “opinion” of an “expert” in a non-exact science, which can be unreliable. Indeed, in many criminal cases we see that the prosecutions “expert” and the defense’s “expert” have opposite opinions when it comes to non-exact sciences like handwriting matching.

But that is not the point of this article. The CB, thinking they have scored a small victory, went on to implicate the room-mates of Vishal, all 3 of whom insist that they were beaten by CB to falsely state that Vishal was not in Meerut. The CB now says these 3 are lying, and are part of the conspiracy to protect Vishal. In general, the CB’s standard reaction to anyone contradicting their narrative is that “they are lying, and are part of the larger conspiracy.” This ever-expanding list includes:

1. The 3 room-mates of Vishal, who were sharing his single room in as a paid guest.

2. The owner of the accomodation who insists Vishal attended their Sankranti (14th Jan) celebration

3. The juvenile grand-daughter of the owner, who insists she went to Vishal’s room on the 14th to invite him

4. The principal/dean of Vishal’s institution who allowed Vishal to write his exam papers AFTER he returned from Kathua, after raping an 8 year old.

5. The student of the college whose roll-number is just after Vishal, and who sat behind Vishal at the exams and stated on camera that he saw Vishal at each exam.

Now my simple question is this: WHY WOULD ALL THESE PEOPLE PUT THEIR LIVES AND REPUTATIONS ON THE LINE TO PROTECT A BOY WHO HAS RAPED AN 8-YEAR OLD GIRL? What power does Vishal have over them? What can he give them? What can he take away from them if they refuse to participate in his elaborate cover-up? After all, currently Vishal and his father are both locked up, and are powerless.

Furthermore, are all these people so lacking in conscience (including an old grandmother of a young granddaughter, a child; and a principal of a school) that they will keep lying to protect a child rapist?

Let’s take the case of the 3 roommates in some detail. These are just some random boys—not Vishal’s family, not even his close friends. They happen to be his roommates. Why would they risk everything, especially their reputation and career (they are all around 20 years old) for to cover a room-mate’s crime. That too not any crime, but an alleged rape of a child. If Vishal is indeed guilty, if he indeed was absent from 12th to 15th as the CB states, why wouldn’t these 3 room-mates simply say so? What is Vishal giving them that is so incredible they will risk everything to cover for his horrible crime? I know I would never do it, and I assume neither would any sane person. So why are these 3 doing it?

Likewise why is a 70 year old grandmother lying time and again to cover Vishal’s horrible crime? What can he offer her to make her do this?

The only simple answer to all these questions is: they are NOT LYING. Vishal has no power over them, nothing to offer them, yet they keep risking a lot to say he was not in Kathua. The only possible reason is that HE REALLY WAS NOT IN KATHUA.

Let us now turn the question around. Why would the Kashmir crime branch, consisting of 4 officers from Kashmir (not Jammu), 2 of whom are tainted with horrible crimes including rape and destruction of evidence, try to frame a Hindu for this crime? Many reasons: the Mehbooba Mufti government recently passed some laws that essentially make it legal for Muslim nomads to take over restricted forest land in Jammu. She is trying to resettle Bangladeshi Rohingya in Jammu. There were some political opponents to that case—mostly Hindu Dogras of Jammu. And she instructed her CB to use this case to make sure these Dogras are tarnished.

If anyone thinks such political games don’t happen, let me remind them of the case of the Malegaon blasts, and the false bogey of “Saffron terror” that was spread using it (see this interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMGCJ6VCkgg ). Let me remind them of the Congress’ dirty play in that tragedy. Such things happen—they happen to Hindus in Bharat —because the media and the intellectual elite are not on their side.

I don’t know who is guilty in the Kathua case. It may well be Sanji Ram and his associates. Let the best investigative agency of the land—the CBI—and the best court of the land—the Supreme Court—decide. And hang those guilty—be they all Hindu, or all Muslim. But what I do know is that the Kashmir CB is making statements as if all of us are stupid. And we are not stupid.

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