Ankur Sharma, lawyer defending the accused in the gang-rape and murder case of the Kathua girl has appealed Hindus of Jammu province to not sell their land and properties to Muslims and stop buying milk and dairy produce from Gujjars, mainstay of the nomadic community.
A seven-minute video making rounds over social media shows Sharma saying Muslims believe Hindus were powerless.
“But we are not,” Sharma can be heard saying in the video.
While praising the Hindu Ekta Manch (HEM), formed in defense of the accused in the Kathua case, Sharma appealed Hindus for boycotting the Muslim nomadic communities of Gujjar and Bakerwals.
“Hindus shall also make it sure that they will not purchase anything, especially milk and other dairy products from Gujjars and Bakerwals,” Sharma says.
“We have to ensure that we are not making them financially strong, because if they will become financially strong they will purchase our lands.”
Apparently instigating a communal confrontation, Sharma alleges the Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslim communities were not original residents of the state but were brought from Punjab to affect change in land ownership in the Hindu-majority areas of Jammu region.
“I met a Gujjar who was fighting with some people in his neighbourhood. He told me that they were living peacefully in Punjab, but the brother of Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress party leader) forcibly made them settle in Samba, Jammu, Kathua and Vijaypur,” Sharma says.
“The nomads were brought to this state through a proper game plan to change the demography of this region,” the lawyer is heard saying in the video.
Sharma also invokes Hindu gods to drive home his appeal for boycotting the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities.
“We Hindus were never taught to stop the ‘Daana Paani’ (sustenance) of any community, but Lord Krishna has also told us to fight against some people who are trying to oust us from our own lands in an organised way.”
In the video Sharma can also be heard expressing confidence that the Kathua rape and murder case of the eight-year-old Bakerwal girl would be handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Defence lawyer in Kathua case to be booked:
The Jammu and Kashmir Police Crime Branch on Tuesday decided to approach a court against a defence lawyer in the Kathua rape-murder case for allegedly “circulating twisted facts” on the matter, sources said.
Crime Branch sources said the probe agency had taken cognisance of a video wherein a case witness is seen and heard claiming that he had been coerced by the Crime Branch to give a statement against one of the eight accused, Vishal Sharma.
Vishal is the son of rape-murder mastermind Sanjhi Ram.
The defence lawyer was accused of passing off the video as a statement given by the witness in front of a Magistrate. Initial investigations allegedly showed that the CD was prepared outside a court premises by the said lawyer to mislead the public.
“This is definitely an attempt to browbeat the witnesses. We have to immediately step in, keeping in mind the sensitivities attached to the case,” the sources said.
The rape-murder case is listed for court hearing on April 28.
Crime Branch has said medical experts have confirmed the sedation, sexual assault and subsequent murder of the eight-year-old girl, regarding which a case was registered at the Hiranagar police station in Kathua district.
The Crime Branch filed a charge-sheet in court after completing its investigation into the gruesome crime and was also preparing a supplementary charge-sheet.
The victim was kidnapped on January 10 and her mutilated body found on January 17 near Rasana village in Hiranagar tehsil in Kathua district.
