One Handwara accused youth arrested

One of the two local youth who have been accused of assaulting a 16-year-old student in Jammu and Kashmir’s Handwara town and then spreading the rumour that she was molested by an Army jawan last week has been arrested by the police.

The alleged molestation of the girl had sparked off widespread protests in Handwara and elsewhere in the Valley during which five persons were killed in security forces’ firings and other actions. The mayhem pushed the Kashmir Valley into a spate of shutdowns and official curfews for about one week.

Hilal Ahmed Bandey, a local shop owner, was arrested by the police on Monday night after it registered an FIR in the local police station under Sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent) of the State’s Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) against him and the other accused.

Bandey is among the two persons named by the girl in her statement before a judicial magistrate alleging they abused and slapped her as she came out of public lavatory adjacent to the Army camp at the town square on April 12.

Earlier the girl had in a video circulated by the Army said that one of the youth who in was in school uniform and who spread the tale about her having been molested by an Army jawan “refused to listen to me, abused me, slapped me and then snatched my bag”. She had also said that the other youth identified by her as “Hilal Bhai” appeared at the scene and started shouting, inviting the attention of the passersby. She, as said by the police, reiterated it in her statement before Handwara’s judicial magistrate on April 16.

The police officials said that the other accused will also be arrested soon and that a manhunt has been launched for him.