Woman cop in Kathua case feels ‘hurt’

DSP Shwetambari Sharma, who was the only woman police officer in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was set- up by the state crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police to arrest the culprits in the Kathua case, said that during her investigation, she faced hostile crowds and was stopped from entereing the Rasana village by the people. She told the media in Srinagar that people stopped her from collecting evidence in the Kathua rape and murder case of an eight-year-old nomadic girl.

She said that initially she got no response from the village and people were told not to speak to her. Recently, the lawyer Ankur Sharma, who is defending the accused, has made a sexist remark that being a woman the investigating officer cannot have the intelligence to unearth the case. To this Shwetambari Sharma told the media that she was hurt. She said that they faced a lot of problems and were attacked by people when they were trying to collect evidence. She said that it took them 72 days to file the first charge-sheet as they were facing a daily hostile atmospheres.

She told the media that she was hurt when she saw people in hundreds waving the Tricolour while trying to shield and defend the alleged rapists.

She said that despite being a Dogra woman, she was being projected as against the people of Jammu and working against their interests. She said that as a police officer she had no religion and would see to it that the culprits were punished by the court.