The Jammu and Kashmir police have refuted the BJP charge that they are torturing party workers, and presented before the media an activist, who herself admitted she was not “abducted” and that she staged a drama.
“Our Uri Assembly constituency candidate in the last elections, Halima Akhtar, was picked up by the police and taken away blindfolded. She was tortured for three days and then dumped,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar had told journalists in Delhi on Friday.
On Saturday, Srinagar Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Ashaq Hussain Bukhari told a news conference here that Halima Begum of Uranbua Uri reported that she was abducted by some people, who had come in two cars, and was kept in a house at Sheikhpora in Budgam district. “She also told the police that she was asked to leave the BJP or face dire consequences,” Mr. Bukhari said adding a case was accordingly registered and investigations began. However, “it was found that her claim was false.”
The police compared her claim of having been in a particular area with her cellphone record and it was found that during “those three days she was in Bemina.” The woman, in whose house she had stayed for three days from January 24 was also produced in court along with Showkat Ahmed, whom Ms. Halima had taken into confidence.
Mr. Bukhari said Ms. Halima was entrusted with organising a rally on January 26 in connection with the BJP's plan to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk here. But Ms. Halima herself told journalists that she did not want the situation to get out of control, as “it is not good for Kashmir. The policy of flag hoisting would cause damage to Kashmir. So I tried to avoid organising the rally and did this,” she said when asked why she enacted this drama.
The police also showed her medical record. She was examined in a government hospital in Srinagar after she alleged torture by her “abductors.” “There are no visible marks of violence or injury on her body,” reveals the record. “There is deep tenderness of old superficial burn,” it says.
Mr. Bukhari said investigation was on and she was booked under Section 182 (false complaint) Cr.PC. The statements of Ms. Halima, Ms. Gudy, with whom she had stayed, and Mr. Showkat Ahmad were recorded in court on Saturday.
“So far only Halima has been arrested and no decision on the others has been taken. Let us see what the investigations reveal” said Sujit Kumar, SP (South) Srinagar.
