Book Highlight | The Girl From Kathua

The Girl from Kathua is a disturbing expose of the sinister agenda of de-Hinduizing Jammu after the 90s genocidal cleansing of the Kashmir Valley. It points to a frightening scenario that bodes ill for the country, unless the powers that be, wake up.

Kapil Kapoor, Former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, JNU, Leading Scholar of Indian Knowledge Traditions

Ghazwa-e-Hind is - the overtaking of the kafir land of Hindustan, which is deemed to be an unfinished business by the Islamic world.

This has time and again proven to be true in all those pagan countries around the world which were once non-Muslim (Egypt, Syria, Iran, Indonesia etc.). In our own neighbourhood; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, are examples of Hindu states that are now completely Islamic. And no rights are accorded to any of the minorities by the Sharia spouting clerics or terrorists in charge of these once holy and sacred Hindu lands.

Setting the Stage:

Little did the people of a small hamlet called Rasana, with a few Hindu Dogra houses in the Kathua district of Jammu, know that Jan 17th 2018 would be the last sane day in their lives.

Caught in a whirlwind carrying signs of a larger conspiracy, this thriller involves all the sordid aspects of a cheap potboiler; murder, rape (that was not), tribals, locals, police, administration, Muslims, Hindus, politicians, activists, lawyers, humanitarian agencies, Bollywood beauties, placards, worldwide infamy, and a border with Pakistan. It could be brushed away as yet another attempt at jihad, but for the murder of a young girl child, seven innocent incarcerated men, one extremely lucky-unlucky boy, and their long suffering families.

The bare facts, as Madhu Kishwar ji reveals in her exhaustive account of this case with on-the-ground investigation and reportage; a young Muslim Bakarwal girl disappeared on Jan 10th 2018 from her home and was found murdered on Jan 17th 2018 in Rasana (a Hindu village), a few minutes away by walk. The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State at that time was Mehbooba Mufti, known for her Islamist leanings, but interestingly in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party at the centre. Jammu and Kashmir, an erstwhile state, has since been made a Union Territory (in Oct 2019).

Right after this murder, Mufti’s government arrested hundreds of young Hindu men over the next few weeks, calling the murder an ‘abduction and a gang-rape’, giving it a religious angle by saying that this heinous act was committed by Hindu men on a young Muslim girl. If there is any truth to this allegation, then the perpetrators deserve the worst kind of punishment, but there is no factual basis to this stained story; and we will see why and how in this summary.

Ironically and tragically, there are hundreds of young Hindu (and Christian and Sikh) girls facing a fate worse than Asifa’s; as they are forced to live with their rapists and perpetrators, forced to change their whole belief system, force-fed beef, in Bangladesh and Pakistan, but no one in India or abroad brings that to light with the same passion.

Across the world Yezidi women continue to be enslaved by ISIS, Israeli women are still in Hamas captivity, and even in India - a Hindu majority nation - we have daily cases of Neha Hiremath in one form or another, yet the victimhood narrative by Islamists is so loud and deafening that no one else is allowed to state their case without being, at best shouted down or laughed at, and at worse - put under mortal danger. We do not see Bollywood divas holding placards for any of the Hindu victims of rape-jihad. Such is the stranglehold of global Islamization.

In the frenzy that ensued, orchestrated and paid for; each one of the journalists who wrote on this case, lawyers who took up the issue, film actresses who held placards; each one of them named the victim, which is punishable under Section 228A of IPC. There is also a bar from naming a rape victim under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) ACT 2012, but which journalist, lawyer, or film actress cared for the poor girl really? They were out to get India, and that they did - reviling Hindu men, targeting poor villagers, defaming our culture and our sacred land -without examining the facts of the case.

When the author of the book ‘Girl From Kathua’, Madhu Kishwar ji, searched for #JusticeforAsifa online, she found 4,35,00,000 results in English alone! All this when crimes and rapes are lower in India compared to other not so densely populated countries. When something horrific like the Rasana ‘rape’ takes place, thousands of men come out in the streets demanding justice. Despite Hindu men showing such solidarity with the victims, there is no kindness shown to the sentiments of Hindus, or their beliefs from any side, when they pin the blame of such crimes on a whole culture.

#JusticeforAsifa campaign went worldwide after April 10th 2018, when a revised chargesheet was filed by the Mehbooba Mufti government. The name and face of the victim was revealed much earlier on Jan 20th, 2018 by Greater Kashmir, a pro PDP and pro Hurriyat paper. This helped the social media influencers immensely - holding a homemade placard and self-righteously demanding death penalty was never easier. The usual suspects from the film industry participating in this travesty is understandable as they are known to sell their wares for money, but that senior journalists from the media too did this, despite knowing the law, did not sit right. So much so that BBC, NYT, Washington Post, all of them followed suit in naming and shaming the victim, which they would otherwise be deferential towards, were she from their own race and country. And yes, Wikipedia too names the victim in a special box dedicated to her.

DCPCR (Delhi Commissioner for Protection of Child Rights) tells us that 6000 children disappear every year in Delhi itself, while many more are abducted, raped, sold off to brothels, killed and cremated without a trace, but the murder and supposed rape of this one girl created undue interest globally.

One must question the key movers and their motives behind this.

Interestingly, not one among the many journalists found time to read the chargesheet, or go to the scene of the crime, nor did they find it important enough to highlight the geopolitical importance of the village of Rasana, Kathua district, and its ramifications, while crying themselves hoarse on the injustice meted out to a child from a minority community. More and more districts in the Hindu majority Jammu are turning Muslim, and this particular village - sandwiched between the border of Pakistan on one side and Highway 44 on the other - has a forest growing behind it going all the way up to Muslim majority Kashmir. In the rainy season the various streams are flooded with water, giving easy unhindered access to cross border movement of drugs, weapons and terrorists. Terrorists who then can easily make their way to Kashmir from Jammu without being detected at all. Incidentally, Kathua is one of the last few Hindu majority districts of Jammu as we speak.

Introduction to the Case

The first chargesheet told the story of Shubham, a young man who abducted Asifa on Jan 10th 2018, took her to his maternal uncle’s cowshed in Rasana; gagged, bound, and held her captive there for a week. He was the sole rapist and killer in the initial telling of this tale. As per this version, she neither screamed or cried for help, even though this shed is right in the middle of 15 small houses,and anyone could have heard her. Shubham allegedly did not even lock the shed! The book provides photographs of the house, village, shed, map of the area, and things become clearer when one sees how close Rasana is to the border with Pakistan. And how conveniently placed it is next to a national highway, with a forest running behind it all the way to Kashmir valley in the north. In the same chargesheet’s detailing of events, Shubham did not rape her for 6 whole days. On the 16th of January, when he was taking her back to her house, he revealed his rapacious intent. Since she threatened to tell her people, he then supposedly killed her with a stone, hitting her on her head. And apparently left her body there, close to the village, for all to find her.

This story sounds preposterous also because this region is known for its goddess and devi worship. Going by past police records, Kathua district has not seen many crimes against women, especially of such ghastly nature. Jammu Dogras are blessed by shakti peethas in and around the region and are very aware of the power of maa. Even if not, they wouldn’t dare do this to a Muslim girl given the socio-religious situation on the ground. If anything, they are at the receiving end of land jihad and harrassment by the Muslim minority herders that the Bakarwals are.

Timeline of the Events

To bring all of this into perspective, let us go back and start from the very beginning of this case.

The SHO (Station House Officer) who registered the complaint on Jan 12th 2018 of missing Asifa was Suresh P. Gautam of Hiranagar Police Station, but he was removed from the case within a week. One must ask why.

On Jan 18th 2018 the first SIT (Special Investigation Team) was formed under ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) Adil Hamid Ganai, but it too was disbanded. Again it merits the question, why.

A second SIT was appointed with officers from Kashmir on Jan 22nd 2018, despite the scene of crime being in Jammu. This was legally irregular, as was SI (Sub-Inspector of Police) Irfan Wani’s appointment. Wani had previously spent 11 years in jail for torture and death in custody of a Hindu boy. He had also raped the victim’s sister repeatedly when she went to protest at the police station about her brother’s death. Wani was known to have been under psychiatric treatment too. He was reinstated on his job just a few months before the high profile Kathua case. Again merits the question, why him.

All this makes the second SIT extremely suspicious.

In an unfortunate turn of events, the members of the first SIT were also charged with abetting in this crime - the rape and murder of Asifa. HC (Head Constable) Tilak Raj, SI Anand Dutta, SPO (Special Police Officer) Surender Kumar, were all charged with being ‘partners in crime’ and ‘destroying evidence’, while SPO Deepak Khajuria was charged with being a ‘co-conspirator, responsible for the ‘rape and murder’ of the victim.

The second SIT arrested many young Hindu men arbitrarily, claiming 232 witnesses, out of which 114 were produced, but many witnesses were soon dropped as they might have refused to testify the false charges.

A revised charge sheet was filed on April 10th 2018, which was based on Shubham’s testimony (who was declared rapist and murderer in the first charge sheet). His confession under duress and in custody, where torture cannot be ruled out, implicated 7 other innocent Hindu men:

1. Sanjhi Ram, his uncle;
2. Vishal Jangotra, his cousin;
3. HC Tilak Raj;
4. SI Anand Dutta;
5. SPO Surender Kumar;
6. SPO Deepak Khajuria;
7. And a Hindu teenager Parvesh Kumar

By law, confession in police custody is not admissible evidence.

Red Flags and Fake Narratives

This revised charge sheet states that Sanjhi Ram was the mastermind of this gory saga. He was the one who instigated his nephew and others to abduct Asifa and kill her, in order to terrorize her tribe, the Bakarwals, into fleeing the district of Kathua. In the film-like plot detailed in the revised chargesheet, Shubham, who was accused in the first charge sheet, called his friend Parvesh (there is no proof of a phone call between these two boys) and they raped her, stuffed her with tobacco based Manars (a laxative, which the chargesheet claims is a sedative), and left her in the Devsthan under lock and key (not Devisthan as wrongly reported by each and every social justice warrior (SJW)).

Devsthans are shrines of the revered saint and kuladevata of the Hindu Dogras of Jammu, Baba Kaliveer. This particular shrine was accessible to everyone in the village, and to those of two other villages close by. Thus three villages had the key and access to this one-room sacred space. Suddenly, the crime scene is no longer the cowshed but a Devsthan.

Continuing with the outlandish saga of the revised chargesheet, SPO Deepak Khajuria was supposed to have entered the shrine to force feed an epilepsy drug to the victim, to keep her unconscious for days. While all this was happening, the girl’s supposed parents (it has been established since that the ones claiming to be Asifa’s parents are not her birth parents, and no one has investigated that part of the story, yet) stated to the police that they had visited Sanjhi Ram, the ‘mastermind’, in this very shrine, to ask about their daughter’s whereabouts and get his opinion as an astrologer (which he is not).

Instead of going to the police, Asifa’s parents went to Sanjhi Ram, who is not an astrologer by any stretch of imagination. And if they visited the one-room shrine, how did they not notice their abducted daughter? This room that was completely bare, with see-through windows and a door, usually kept open for daily puja in the mornings? The revised charge sheet also claims that Lohri, a big festival that takes place in January, was celebrated in the shrine on Jan 13th 2018. So was Makar Sankranti, which falls on Jan 14th every year, wherein all the villagers (from Rasana, Kootah and Patta) gather to celebrate as a religious congregation. How did they not notice the victim either? This convoluted tale with numerous loopholes merits rigorous questioning and examination.

Thankfully for one of the accused, Vishal Jangotra, the younger son of Sanjhi Ram, he was studying far away in Muzaffarnagar, UP, and had enough proof in terms of bus tickets, ATM footage, exam hall ticket, testimony of his landlady and college friends to be able to escape these trumped up charges. But for Zee News, which telecast these proofs and made a big ruckus about the harassment Vishal and his supporters were facing, he too would have been behind bars today - facing the death penalty.

It is interesting to note that despite having the courage and brains to abduct and rape, even the policemen involved in this heinous crime did not know how to dispose off a corpse. Why kill a girl and keep her dead body (which usually decomposes and stinks) in a shrine (that is open to all, with the three sets of keys with headmen of the three villages that jointly manage the shrine) for 3 days? And when they finally decided to do away with Asifa’s body, why would they dump it so close to Sanjhi Ram’s (the main accused in the second charge sheet) house? Being Hindus, would cremation not have been a better and safer option? Burning the body, so that they are not caught? Apparently this did not occur to any among the evil eightsome, which includes two Special Police Officers. Another interesting fact to note is the shrine being just a 5 mins walk from the victim’s house, how come this young girl, who was bold enough to tend to horses on her own in the forests even after dark (as per the story cooked up by her adoptive parents), was not bold enough to run to her own house from the shrine? The very shrine with see-through windows, and a bevy of people (including her foster parents) walking in and out while Asifa was supposed to have been a prisoner there. What did she eat? Where did she relieve herself? How come she did not die of frostbite in the sparse shrine in the cold wintery months? So many questions that do not lead to concrete answers, except cooked up laughable ones with discrepancies.

The fake parents of Asifa; Mohammed Yousuf and Naseema Bano, have admitted to courts and the media that they are indeed not Asifa’s real parents. Her biological parents were never produced in court. Two men, both claiming to be Asifa’s biological father, showed up and one even opened a bank account to collect funds in her name along with the fake father Mohammed Yousuf. A lot of money was thus made claiming victimhood. #JusticeforAsifa is a big scam waiting to be exposed, only if journalists had the scruples to look past the flimsy but dangerous narrative. While the fake parents continued to claim that they had no prior enmity with the residents of Rasana village and hardly interacted with them, police records show them as stating that Sanjhi Ram wanted to oust them (i.e., Muslim Bakarwals) from Kathua district, hence he went ahead with his plan of ‘abduction and rape’. As per Madhu Kishwar ji’s research, Yousuf and Bano have also lied about their own ages as well as that of Asifa’s. They failed to register an FIR (First Information Report) until the 12th of January, two full days after Asifa’s disappearance in the bitter cold of a January winter. Asifa’s Look Out Notice was not issued by police in local media outlets and TV channels until Jan 18th 2018. A whole day after her body was recovered on Jan 17th 2018. All this begs a simple question, why?

Another red flag is that of Asifa’s one and only existing photograph. This was taken by her ‘brother’ Sudam on Jan 8th 2018, just two days before she went missing. There are no other photos of her available even in her own home. The one and only photograph of Asifa, apart from the one that made her infamous globally, was of her cooking large chapatis at an open smoky chulha. This photo was shown to Madhu ji by Asifa’s ‘brother’ Sudam, on his personal smartphone, purchased a day and half before Asifa vanished. And this very same man, despite repeated requests later, did not share the ‘Asifa cooking’ photo with Madhu ji for the book. So for all practical purposes, there is no other photograph of Asifa except the one known globally.

Aftermath and Civil Society

Out of the blue, right after Asifa’s body was found on Jan 17th 2018 in Rasana hamlet, anti-Hindu, anti-Modi, pro-Pakistan slogans were shouted by a crowd of Muslims who gathered to protest her death and rape. Asifa’s dead body was then taken unceremoniously by this crowd and was used for blocking National Highway 44, causing a huge ruckus, to gain national and international media attention.

Comprehending the evil designs by the minority to portray the Jammu Dogras (who are Hindu) as some sort of criminals and rapists, the Jammu High Court Bar Association, the Citizens Groups in Jammu, and the Chambers of Commerce, called for a bandh on April 11th 2018 (after the revised charge sheet on April 10th 2018) under the leadership of the President of the Bar Association, Shri. B. S. Slathia. A well known Congress leader, he passed away fighting the good fight in June 2020, a much dejected man. For wanting a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) enquiry into this case, he was vilified in press and in person as a defender of rapists. Two senior BJP Ministers; Forestry Officer Chaudhry Lal Singh and Industries & Commerce Minister Chander Prakash Ganga then joined the protests under the banner of Hindu Ekta Manch. This was to confront the global ignominy that descended on the Jammu Hindus, thanks to the part played by the glamorous dolls of Bollywood whose paid promotion to decry the ‘rapists’ of ‘Devisthan’ became the highlight of the case.

I AM HINDUSTAN. I AM ASHAMED.

This common script played across all Twitter accounts of celebrities looking for deeper engagement with their woke followers, and handlers from abroad. While they displayed their placards with a poker face, not knowing an iota of facts of this case or ever having visited ground zero, the poor people of Rasana and surrounding villages abandoned their homes and took shelter on National Highway 44 to protest the arbitrary arrests, and due to the fear of reprisal, whipped up by the frenzy on social media.

As was predictable, both the BJP Ministers were made to resign from their posts for leading the Highway protest. Soon Chaudhry left BJP and started the Dogra Swabhiman Manch, leading another protest of 50,000 people to Jammu from his village, which had people joining in cutting across party lines, demanding a CBI probe into this sad affair. Unfortunately, the Bar Association of India and the Supreme Court of India were complicit in denying an impartial CBI probe into the matter.

The media on its part, as if on cue, promoted minority gangsters and criminals, projecting them as heroes while defaming the Hindu leaders and ignoring their just demands. Talib Hussain, the activist who gained notoriety for claiming to be a lawyer, and fighting for justice for Asifa, was later indicted for multiple rapes, wife beating, extortion, and attempted murder. He was the media’s poster child in the initial few months of this case.

Forensic and Post Mortem Reports

Above all, as per the forensics report, there was no spermatozoa detected on either Asifa’s body or her clothes. Meaning there was no proof of rape. Post mortem report (PMR) also does not mention any injuries to her private parts.

The PMR DOES NOT evidence the following as reported by the irresponsible press:

1. Electrocution and human bites on the body
2. Strangulation and assault on the skull
3. Multiple gang-rapes

Additionally, the epilepsy drug that was said to have been administered on Asifa cannot render a victim unconscious for more than half a day.

What the PMR DOES speak of is:

1. Abrasion on one thigh and forearm
2. A wound behind the ear

Given that there is NO proof of either rape or murder in the PMR, except for a confession under duress in the police station by Shubham, all the innocently framed victims ought to have been acquitted. Unfortunately, seven of them are still in jail while Mohammed Yousuf, the alleged ‘father’ of Asifa is making a demand for their death penalty. Demanding a death penalty even for Vishal Jangotra - who was not even present in Jammu at the time of the crime!

Thankfully the irrefutable proof of his non-presence in Kathua helped in Vishal Jangotra’s acquittal, with this the case as described in the revised chargesheet too falls apart for these reasons:

1. In criminal cases, guilt has to be proven without reasonable doubt
2. Given that the police had fabricated false charges against one of the key accused (Vishal), it stands to reason to order a fresh investigation, as others too could have been similarly framed
3. Unfortunately the much compromised judge Tejwinder Singh ordered life imprisonment till last breath for Sanjhi Ram and Deepak Khajuria, 5 years for the police men, and Shubham is now being tried as an adult (if we compare this to Nirbhaya’s case, the youngest most violent rapist, a Muslim, was let off as being a juvenile, with a sewing machine in tow)

Need of the Hour

Given that this case has many national security implications, the NIA (National Intelligence Agency) must be brought in to investigate. Investigate the political powers of that time such as Mehbooba Mufti, activists such as Talib Hussain, foster parents of Asifa such as Mohammed Yousuf, corrupt policemen and judges including Tejwinder Singh.

The TV Series ‘Scoop’ based on Jigna Vora’s biographical memoir, ‘Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’, follows the real-life story of Jigna Vora who was accused of the murder of mid-day reporter Jyotirmoy Dey in June 2011. This well made show gives us a sense of closure and hope that there is justice in our system, even if delayed, since Jigna was finally released after spending months in prison, thanks to the quick thinking of a smart lawyer. Will it be so for these eight Hindu men? Will someone hear their pleas and come to their aide? Until and unless clever and influential lawyers do not take up this high profile case and assist the innocent men, we will lose more Hindus to the diabolical Islamic design of Ghazwa-e-Hind.

Rasana village is now a ghost hamlet with most residents fleeing the place after this drama. It is now easy for cross-border trade and terrorism to take place with no concerned citizens to keep a check. Is this not what ‘they’ wanted from the beginning?

Madhu Kishwar ji in this book has laid bare how the entire case; as conceived, drafted, and presented by J&K Crime Branch, holds no merit. How the police documents showcased are enough to prove the falsity of this fabricated charge sheet and bizarre accusations laid against innocent men. Yet neither the mainstream media nor the global influencers, no one has come to the rescue of these poor men who are from the economically weaker sections.

Being Hindu, they are no one’s cause celebre.

About the Book

The book, ‘A Girl From Kathua - A Sacrificial Victim of Ghazwa-E-Hind’, which has been written with great detail and accuracy by Madhu Purnima Kishwar ji, may be ordered from www.manushi.in. This book, an exemplary output of a seasoned activist-journalist with relevant facts, reports, images, and maps, was written after a thorough on-the-field-investigation right after a brain surgery. If nothing, we may learn integrity, hard work, and discipline, from reading this tome, all of 641 pages. It is published by Garuda. For more information please write to: editor@manushi-india.org

All the material for this book summary has come from the presentation that Madhu ji made on March 31st 2024 at ASCI Auditorium, Hyderabad, organized by AHAM TALKS.

This book is based on a three-year rigorous investigation of the tragic murder of a little girl in J&K. It exposes how the murder was used to manufacture a fake outrage and highlights the vulnerable position of Hindus of Jammu province… deserves to be debated seriously.

Rajiv Malhotra, Author, Founder-Infinity Foundation