The Jammu and Kashmir government has terminated the employment of two doctors who performed the women’s autopsies 13 years after a CBI investigation ruled out the rape and murder of two women in Shopian, south Kashmir, and charged 13 people for fabricating evidence.
According to an official source, Dr. Nighat Shaheen Chiloo and Dr. Bilal Ahmad Dalal were fired from their positions for “actively working with Pakistan-based groups and fabricating evidence” to incite opposition to the security forces.
When Omar Abdullah served as chief minister, on May 29, 2009, the bodies of two women were discovered in a stream in Shopian. Many people flocked to the streets as rape and murder allegations were made.
A concerned government promptly appointed former Justice Muzaffar Ahmad Jan to conduct an inquiry because the state had just experienced large-scale public protests related to the Amarnath land dispute movement. In response to strong public pressure, the police also filed a FIR for rape and murder on June 7, 2009.
In its findings, the Justice Jan Commission charged the police with destroying evidence. However, it also made accusations against the personality of one of the women’s husbands. The Majlis-e-Mushawarat Shopian, a committee set up to lead the agitation, rejected the report.
The government gave the matter to the CBI, which excluded rape and murder in December 2009 while the Valley demonstrations persisted. 13 people, including the two physicians, the Shopian chief medical officer, and two attorneys, were charged by the CBI in the case.
The two doctors were dismissed from their positions, according to an official source, for “actively working with Pakistan and hatching a conspiracy with its assets within Kashmir to falsify the post-mortem report” on the two women. The source continued, “The two doctors’ ultimate goal was to incite discontent against the Indian state by falsely charging the security personnel of rape and murder.
