BJP-led Haryana govt elevates wife of judge hearing the Kathua case to important post

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NEW DELHI: Just two days before the model code of conduct kicked off on March 10, Haryana’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s government-appointed Kamaldeep Bhandari, wife of the judge, hearing the Kathua gangrape and murder case, to an important statutory post, reported The Print.

3-member panel headed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Transport minister Krishan Lal Panwar, Minister of State for Cooperation Manish Grover and Chief Secretary D S Dhesi cleared the name of Bhandari as the new information commissioner to the Haryana State Information Commission.

The other two were Lt. Gen Kamal Jit Singh (Retd) GOC-in-C Western Command and Jai Singh Bishnoi.

All three newly appointed state information commissioners will serve a term of five years after beating 229 applicants for the post, which included retired and serving IAS officers.

While the Haryana government had advertised for the posts in June and August 2018, the appointments were virtually done at the last minute, barely beating the model code of conduct.

The wife of Kathua case judge

Bhandari is the wife of D.r Tejwinder Singh, the district and sessions judge, Pathankot. Since July last year, Singh has been hearing the sensitive Kathua rape case that was transferred outside from Jammu and Kashmir to Pathankot in Punjab on the directions of the Supreme Court.

Kathua case

An eight-year-old Muslim girl belonging to Bakerwal (nomadic) community was held captive inside a temple, and was sedated before being brutally gang raped and murdered.

Later the body was recovered from Rassana forest in Kathua district of Jammu, in January last year, the incident which have sent shockwaves across the country.

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Its been a year but the family of the victim still lives with the horror and unable to get over the gut wrenching, horrendous end of their daughter.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti reacted sharply to the appointment alleging that said the ‘Moral code of conduct’ has been reduced to a joke under the central government.

“Moral code of conduct has been reduced to a joke. Under central government, institutions have been rendered powerless & are being exploited to serve the interests of BJP. The message to babus is loud & clear. Fall in line to favour us & enjoy perks plus privileges or else suffer,” she wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.