Shopian case: CBI told to keep mum about probe

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation not to share information about the ongoing Shopian investigations with the media and ordered it to file the status report about the case to court only.

Hearing the Public Interest Litigation to which the Kashmir bar association is a party, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir ordered that 'the CBI should not divulge information pertaining to the investigation into the Shopian rape and murder case to the press'.

The court directed the investigating agency to submit status reports about the progress of investigation to the court alone.

Wednesday's direction came on a day when the media quoting sources had said that the exhumation and subsequent forensic examination had revealed that one of the victims, Asiya Jan, 17, had not been raped.

In a significant development, the Kashmir bar association on Wednesday moved an application before the division bench dissociating itself from the PIL henceforth saying that 'the CBI had selectively leaked disinformation about the case in order to mess it up.'

The division bench, however, said the court would continue to monitor the investigations into case till the mystery was solved.