Kashmir rape case: SIT detains man for instigating woman

Srinagar, Jul 28 (PTI) The Special Investigation Team
(SIT) probing the alleged rape incident in Kulgam district of
south Kashmir in the northern Indian state Jammu and Kashmir
has detained a man on charges of instigating a woman to put
the blame on army.
A senior police official said a man identified as Ghulam
Hassan was detained Wednesday after it emerged that he had
instigated 32-year-old Ruqaya Bano to blame the army.
"We are trying to ascertain the motives of the man for
instigating the woman but so far there is nothing to suggest
that he might be linked to any separatist outfit," the
officer said on condition of anonymity.
The officer said investigations have also revealed that
there were some problems in the woman's martial life as she
had not been able to conceive even after three years of
marriage.
"On the day she had disappeared, she had quarreled with
her husband and left home. After wandering overnight, she met
Ghulam Hassan while on her way back to home who asked her to
blame army," the officer said.
Earlier last week, the rape controversy had taken a new
turn when the husband and mother-in-law of Ruqaya claimed
before police that she suffered from mental illness and was at
her home home on the day she claimed she was sexually abused.
The statement of the family members of Ruqaya, 32, are
contrary to her claim that she was picked up by two men in
uniform on July 19 and allegedly gang-raped for two days
before being let off on July 21.
In her statement to the SIT on Friday, Amina Bi,
mother-in-law of the alleged victim, said her daughter-in-law
went missing on the morning of July 20 and not evening of July
19.
Ruqaya had alleged that she was kidnapped by two men in
uniform on the evening of July 19 and held hostage for two
nights during which she was raped in a "Dhok" at Manzgam, 80
kms from here. PTI MIJ