'Reflection of sick mentality': J&K court on rape of 70-year-old tourist in Pahalgam

The alleged crime took place on April 11, when the 70-year-old woman from Maharashtra visited Pahalgam

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

The alleged crime occurred on April 11, when the 70-year-old woman from Maharashtra visited Pahalgam with her son’s family. According to reports, the woman was alone in her hotel room when the accused barged in, gagged her mouth and raped her before fleeing through the window.

The accused later approached the court seeking bail on the grounds that the police harboured some personal grudge against him and his father, on account of which he has been falsely implicated in the case.

According to a report by News18, the assault was so brutal that the old lady remained in pain for days together.

The court said that the investigation in the case prima facie revealed the commission of an offence “in a highly dastardly manner”.

“It 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,” said Principal Sessions Judge, Tahir Khurshid Raina.

The court lamented the moral collapse in society after the incident and expressed concern that it is “hopelessly getting eroded on various fronts”. “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,” said Justice Raina. “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 said Jammu and Kashmir’s rich cultural values and excellent hospitality have attracted tourists from across the world, but the heinous crime “cast a shadow over the said legacy of Kashmir” and Pahalgam. The court voiced its dismay over the episode saying the incident was unfortunate and reprehensible and should have shaken the conscience of this society.