Shopian files

The question of what was amiss in Shopian had long morphed into the despairing realisation that everything is. The convoluted routes the original investigation into the deaths on May 29 of Neelofer 22 and Aasiya 17 had taken,the dead ends it had encountered,the claims and counter-claims,the suspensions,arrests and the release on bail of local police officers,the shocker of the fake forensic samples,the admission of criminal negligence and wrongdoing by doctors all against the backdrop of a faltering,confused and confusing state administration and the stark likelihood of another sudden civil flare-up have made Shopian a ready,one-word reference for the Valley and its troubled history. How this act of crime and human tragedy was allowed to spiral into a months-long gory saga is an object lesson in how not to mete out justice to victims and their kin,how not to mock public indignation.

That the Shopian probe was finally handed over to the CBI on September 9 may be cause for more hope than hitherto could be invested in the investigation,but it is hardly the end of the story. The bodies of the two victims have since been exhumed,and new forensic evidence discovered by senior AIIMS professionals has reportedly prompted an admission of cover-up on the part of a doctor who had conducted the first set of tests on the victims bodies. The state administration must answer why it did not probe the neglect of standard operating procedure in a medico-legal case.

The state government had for long stuck to ensuring that,irrespective of the success or sincerity of the probe,public anger would be mitigated by the arrests and appearance of action. Now that the CBI has taken over,it is imperative that the truth be unearthed and the tragedy laid to rest. For this the CBI must be transparent.