Kathua rape case: Activist-lawyer who appeared on behalf of victim's family arrested on rape charge in J&K's Pulwama district

A social activist and lawyer who appeared in the case of the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, has been arrested by police on the charge of rape. Talib Hussain, who was a prominent figure in demonstrations seeking justice for the Kathua gang-rape victim, was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police in Tral area of Pulwama district in South Kashmir on Tuesday. “He was brought to Samba following a written complaint of a married woman who has accused him of raping her in a jungle about one and a half months ago,” a senior police officer said in a report by The Tribune. An FIR under Section 376 and 4/25 Arms Act of the Ranbir Penal Code (attempt to rape) was registered against the accused at Samba Police Station on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_4883421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of women protesting the Kathua rape case at the India Gate in Delhi. PTI[/caption] According to the complaint by the woman, Hussain is her relative and met her in the forest when she went to the Chadwa jungle for grazing cattle. “He was armed with a tokka (sharp-edged weapon) and with the intention of raping her, he thrashed the woman on the ground and tried to rape her,” the FIR copy “He told me that he will kill me if I revealed anything about the incident to anyone,” she has said in her complaint, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle. However, it was after she narrated the alleged incident to her husband on 31 July that the couple lodged a complaint with the police and sought action against the accused, the police said. “We’ve asked for a thorough investigation into the complaint and assigned the same to ASI Kulwant Singh”, said a senior police official. Hussain also has an FIR filed against him by his wife Nusrat Begum (30), who had approached the police on 28 June, alleging that she was subjected to physical torture by her husband for dowry. Hussain had denied the charge and said that it was “aimed at maligning him for his raising voice to seek justice for the Kathua gang-rape and murder victim”. He was subsequently granted anticipatory bail by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. In that case, Hussain was booked under various provisions of the RPC, including domestic violence, dowry demand, threatening to divorce his wife and making an attempt to murder her. The Tribune reported that the victim’s father Mohammad Tahir had alleged that Hussain was working for the Hurriyat Conference. Hussain, who claims to be the lawyer of the victim’s family in the Kathua case, does not have an LLB degree and never represented them in the court.