Thread by @Rita_Banerji

Just like I did with the Delhi bus gang rape & murder, I am following the investigation on #Asifa's case closely. And like the Delhi police, the J&K police have mucked this up too. This chargesheet is full of holes! firstpost.com/india/kathua-r…

1/ So according to this detailed investigation, #Asifa was repeatedly sedated as she was raped over 7 days. And for some reason, the strip of tablets she was drugged with was, as per police report, "kept under a heap of garbage near an electric pole outside the Devisthan." What?

2/n Report says accused "washed the clothes worn by" #Asifa at the time of her death "to remove the clay and blood stains/sperm" before forensic tests. Did they put it back on her? Do forensics confirm this? And what about forensic report on fluid, hair & evidence on & in her?

3/n J&K police say "one of the hair strands recovered from the Devisthan matched with the DNA profile of Victim #Asifa which confirmed that the victim was kept in captivity at Devisthan." She was gangraped & tortured for 7 days in this place & they got ONE hair strand?

4/n The police says it has DNA & physical evidence. But the only thing I read in the chargesheet is they got one strand of #Asifa's hair from the temple where she was kept, raped & tortured for days, & NOTHING from forensics & autopsy! How's that possible?

5/n There is a picture of #Asifa's mother weeping before her supposed school uniform. Yet NYT reports her father as saying she was not sent to school but her brothers were.

The TRUTH is : an 8yr-old girl was brutally killed regardless of what she was.

mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/wor…

6/n #TriggerWarning for these next tweets. They are pictures of #Asifa after her body was found, and they contradict the police report on her. The media has jumped on the communal bandwagon & when it needs to totally SCRUTINIZE the police investigation here!

7/n
1. Who took these pictures of Asifa when she was found in Jan, weeks before any police action? Not her grieving parents. The angles & framing of these pictures indicate a professional photographer. Who made the poor mother sit away while they clicked these pictures?

8/n The pictures show #Asifa's face, body & hair dusty and covered with mud. But police report says she was kept & abused INSIDE the temple premise, carried outside, kept on an accused's lap & strangled & then her body dumped in the forest. So where did all the mud come from?

9/n Most importantly, the police report clearly states that #Asifa was strangled and "in order to make sure that the victim is dead, hit her twice on head with stone..." The media's been repeatedly saying her head was smashed in but the pictures clearly show that it was not.

10/n What really is crucial forensics evidence is found in her father's statement below on the condition the family found #Asifa's body in. But oddly no mention in the police & assumedly forensics report of bite marks on her lip (DNA source!), electrocution, her legs broken.

11/n This news report says #Asifa's "blood-soaked clothes were washed before they were sent to a forensic lab." The pictures don't show her clothes as blood-soaked. But what's critical is what the autopsy shows which the police report says nothing about!

google.com/amp/s/www.ndtv…

12/n Some Other things that are unclear. Why no media mentioned that #Asifa was adopted? Or why most media drop Poojwala from her adoptive father's last name? Or if #Asifa's own parents have been informed? Or how Pujwalas own two daughters died?
bbc.com/news/amp/world…

13/n Police behaved strangely in this case from the start. Not taking action when #Asifa was reported missing however is normal for Indian police all over. What was strange is the police put a look out notice in the newspaper four days after her family found and buried her!

14/n I will continue with my analysis of the police mess up of #Asifa's case later. But here is the thread to my analysis of how the Delhi police & power corridor messed up investigation of the Delhi Bus Gang rape case.

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @Rita_Banerji view original on Twitter

15/n Why should #Asifa's adobtive parents be investigated & eliminated as suspects in her disappearance & murder? Because it's standard procedure for all competent & professional police forces to first check people closest to the victim. It's how any blind investigation begins.

16/n As head of @50millionmissin & having worked on mass Femicide (female genocide) in India, we know that most of the 7million girls killed in the age group 1-6yrs in India, are killed by their own family.Yet police rarely even investigate these crimes!

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @50millionmissin view original on Twitter

17/n Listen to #Asifa's father. He says the Hindu-Muslim politics divert from justice. He says he does not want a kangaroo court. He says all he wants is for a proper police investigation (which he has not got) so there can be #JusticeforAsifa.

18/n It's strange that the police charge-sheet on #Asifa's case says NOTHING about her parents testimonies on the state of her body. Nothing on her being tortured by electrocution on her thighs, hands and cheeks. Or there were bite marks on her body. Or that her legs were broken

19/n. The electrocution is evident even in the pictures of her. Why does the autopsy report not mention these? Why has the police not established when, where, by whom, and with what equipment #Asifa was electricuted? Does the temple have electricity?

20/n What is curious is that we are constantly hearing from news reports that #Asifa was held captive in a temple for a week, where she was repeatedly raped. Yet we do not see any photos of this scene of crime in any media channel, which is strange. Well except one - India Today.

21/n The only pictures of this temple I found. One bare room w/concrete floors, 2 doors w/ see through grills. Outside there's a jungle. Worshippers visit temples everyday. Herders & villagers passing can see everything inside. Could #Asifa be hidden, electrocuted & raped here?

22/n Another discrepancy is in the timeline of death. In the police report (1st tweet) #Asifa was killed on 14, ie 3days before she was found on 17Jan. But her adoptive father in this video says she had been killed less than 24hrs when they found her.

23/n What's also interesting in the video in 22 is how the adoptive father explains that soon as they found #asifa they told the police & police came with media! IS THIS POLICE PROTOCOL? In the pics the body was not cordoned off & photographers were free to trample all around!

24/n *Trigger Warning* Even more shocking. The police allowed these media people to handle #Asifa's body & shoot this video, which clearly intends to incite public anger, & w/the pictures the video was put out on local media in Kashmir the very next day.

25/n For those who want #JusticeForAsifa, and who believe that bigoted Hindus gang raped, tortured & killed Asifa inside a temple, would it matter if the person was not Hindu, or she was not raped and killed in a temple? Would they be less angry at what was done to her?

26/n FOR #JusticeforAsifa, a court can deliver a clean verdict ONLY on basis of what the police presents as rock solid FORENSIC EVIDENCE. But police have mucked this up BADLY! Why are media & public fixated on MOTIVE which cannot establish guilt& absolves the KEY ROLE.

27/n. The public (&media!) are not SCRUTINIZING the police evidence & report. They are ranting: the accused are Hindu bigots who hate Muslims & hence raped & killed #Asifa. The ranting will not establish guilt. Only evidence will. Which police don't have!

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @smokapur view original on Twitter

28/n The press is going ga-ga over work of this cop in #Asifa's case. The corrupt cops took pictures of Asifa with crime scene mud on her. Washed mud off her clothes & took pictures. Both pics were kept in the case file. And the brilliant cop noted it. 👏
nationalheraldindia.com/amp/story/indi…

29/n #Asifa's case is going the #Arushi way. The police, via the media, propagated random theories of motive & murder without strong investigation or EVIDENCE. But police investigation & evidence is KEY to #justice in the courts. We the PUBLIC MUST hold the POLICE accountable!

30/n Bollywood has a big impact on India& this stunt by actors is just misleading & communally inflammatory. There is no solid forensic evidence to establish Asifa was raped in "devisthaan" (temple) & police report states she was murdered outside. This is not #JusticeforAsifa.

31/n Finally here's a video that gives a full view of the one room "temple" which is said to be the scene of crime. It has doors and windows on all sides, is open 24/7, & has prayer ceromonies twice a day. How'd they hide & rape #Asifa here for 6 days? news18.com/videos/india/e…

32/n To address speculations, I'm neither left or right. I'm a feminist activist & as dir. of @50millionmissin I've worked on #VAW for 11yrs. W/this THREAD on #Asifa's rape & murder I am holding police & judiciary accountable as we MUST per #VermaCommission report's guidelines.

33/n A bit about the #Gujjars now. The Gujjars, a pastoral, nomadic community that #Asifa was from, are the 3rd largest ethnic group in Jammu & Kashmir after Kashmiri-speaking Muslims & Dogra Hindus.They influence the outcome of at least 20 candidates in 8 Assembly constituencies

34/n The Gujjars move with their herds between Hindu dominated Jammu in winter & Muslim dominated Kashmir in the summer. And as this first hand account shows, they faced hostility from both Hindus & Muslims, particularly over the issue of land ownership. twocircles.net/2008jul04/it_s…

35/n. Gujjars & Bakrawals as 20% of J&Ks population are a substantial VOTING block. So tho sidelined by Hindus & Muslims, both know how imp they are to J&K's political scenario.But Gujjars want their separate state & official recognition of their language gujjars.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/guj…

36/n It's insane how some people are flippantly saying - oh yes the police botched up crucial evidence in their investigation of the Asifa rape & murder case, or that if chargesheet is wrong then no worries, the court will throw out the case! Don't they want #JusticeForAsifa?

37/n The #chargesheet with evidence & timeframe of the crime is CRITICAL to how the prosecutor will fight the criminal trial for she has nothing else to go by! Imagine #Asifa's poor parents dragged through the courts for years, and in the end the evidence is non-conclusive!

38/n Wrong Details in the police chargesheet about the drug with which she was sedated. Did autopsy confirm it in her blood? Did police keep blood sample? And why'd they hide a body under a mat in the temple but the drug under a garbage heap outside?

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @thescrewtinizer view original on Twitter

39/n WHY WERE Crime techniques (as below) not used to establish the scene of crime in the #AsifaCase. They establish presence of blood, saliva, hair, etc. EVEN if area has been washed. Same with clothes. If temple is not the scene of crime, police is BLUFFING by searching there!

40/n The prosecutor must demand a new investigation in the #AsifaCase and use of technology like Luminol (see 39), with video/photo evidence to establish scene of crime. Even if washed, blood & multiple semen stains (for #GangRape ) will show up everywhere.

41/n Why are people praising the police in the #Asifa case? It's absurd. They destroyed evidence & used public money to come up with a rubbish report that has not one shred of evidence & and inane conjectures & conflicting timeline!

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @Rita_Banerji view original on Twitter

42/n The Defence lawyer is making dumb statements about the woman police officer in the #Asifa case instead of pointing out flaws in the police report because a weak case suits him. It's the prosecutor #DeepikaRajawat's job to demand a water-tight report.
news18.com/news/india/she…

43/n This is absurd! The special investigation team says they found ONE DROP of #Asifa's OWN blood, on her OWN frock & it's their KEY evidence in cracking this case of her #gangrape and #murder? Why is media not questioning this? They are setting this case up to fall through!

44/n If investigators say all blood was washed off #Asifa's clothes & they used spl tech to locate 1 drop of blood, then they used agents like Luminol(see 39). These agents light up ALL invisible evidence like blood, semen etc. Means either only 1drop was there or report's wrong.