J&K court rejects bail plea of man accused of raping 70-year-old tourist

Srinagar: A court in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district has rejected the bail plea of a man accused of raping a 70-year-old tourist from Maharashtra.

While rejecting the bail plea, the court delivered a scathing remark on the moral fabric of society and said the incident is a reflection of the prevailing "depravity and sick mentality" in the society.

Principal Sessions Judge Anantnag, Tahir Khurshid Raina, rejected the bail application of the accused, Zubair Ahmad from Ganeshbal Pahalgam, on Friday.

The alleged incident occurred at a hotel in the famous tourist resort of Pahalgam in the south Kashmir district where the woman was staying with her family in April.

According to the police investigation, the accused unlawfully entered the septuagenarian woman's hotel room when she was alone, gagged her mouth with a blanket, raped her, inflicted injuries and fled through the window.

The assault was so brutal that the victim was unable to sit and move and remained in pain for several days.

However, the accused filed for bail through his counsel, alleging false implication and bias on part of the police due to personal enmity.

The accused also argued that no test identification parade had been conducted and that he was cooperating with the investigation.

The judge noted while the investigation is going on, the perusal of the case diary file (CF) prima facie reveals the commission of offence of rape on a senior citizen lady in a highly dastardly manner.

"This is what she has carried from the Pahalgam for the rest of her life where she had come to enjoy the beauty of Kashmir," the Judge noted.

He said the medical opinion, forensic reports and the victim's statement prima facie support the allegations of rape and negates the grounds of bail advanced by the accused.

"I do not find any of the ground pleaded in the application and arguments advanced by the counsel for the accused to influence the judicial conscience of this court to describe the incarceration of the accused as legally unsustainable and unwarranted at this stage of the investigation, which is even yet to culminate into a charge sheet," the court said while rejecting the bail plea.

It said the incident is not an isolated act to be ignored, but a reflection of a highest degree of depravity and sick mentality prevailing in the society, which must bow its head in shame and invites a serious introspection as to what it stood for, and how that has now collapsed.

The principal sessions judge expressed its concern over the incident saying it is highly unfortunate, condemnable by all possible words, and ought to have jolted the conscience of this society -- which claims its moorings to be based on rich ethical values and culture -- but now stands shaken to the hilt.

"A revered guest, who was a senior lady, was on her visit to this land of saints and seers, was treated so shabbily and shockingly that for all times to come, she will have remorse over the choice of place she made to spend a period of her old age days with her children," the court said.

The judge expressed concern over the eroding moral compass of society, and called for introspection.

"No sooner the sheet-anchors, conscious keepers, watch dogs, and philanthropists of this society will rise to the occasion to check what is going wrong on the moral front of the society, the better will be for saving the Kashmir as the paradise on earth in its true sense,” Raina observed.

"Mere meadows, mountains, lush green fields, forests, springs, rivers, rivulets and gardens will not come to the rescue of Kashmir as a desired tourist destination," the judge added.