The Jammu and Kashmir Police has filed FIR against a group of lawyers for protesting and attempting to prevent the Crime Branch officials from performing their duty of filing charge sheet against eight persons in the alleged rape and murder of a minor girl.


The body of the girl, from the Bakherwal community, a nomadic Muslim tribe, was recovered from the Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.


The Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, probing the alleged rape and murder of the girl in Kathua district, filed the charge sheet against seven of the eight accused in the case at a court in Kathua, amid protests by local lawyers yesterday.


The case has become communally sensitive and various political parties have jumped into the controversy with allegations and counter-allegations over handling of the matter.


Today, the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, probing the alleged rape and murder of the minor girl, filed a separate charge sheet against a juvenile accused in the case at a court in Kathua district. -- PTI