Defence lawyer of Kathua rape accused calls Mehbooba Mufti a ‘Jihadi CM’

NEW DELHI: Ankur Sharma, the lawyer representing a prime accused in the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua, has on Wednesday called the Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti a “Jihadi CM.”

The lawyer defending Sanji Ram, the alleged mastermind of Kathua gangrape-murder has accused Mufti of giving “legal immunity to cow slaughter and bovine smuggling,” and leading an “Islamo-fascist communal agenda for demographic change in Jammu’s Hindu-dominated areas.”

“Mehbooba Mufti is a jihadi…She gives legal immunity to cow slaughter and bovine smuggling. She refers to them (Gujjars and Bakerwals) as tribals, who are Muslims, and says Section 188 RPC (‘disobedience to order’) will not be invoked against them…She is spearheading an Islamo-fascist communal agenda wherein demographic change is a reality, where people of one religion are occupying land in Jammu province, which is a Hindu-dominated area,” Ankur Sharma told the Indian Express.

ALSO READ: Kathua aftermath: Defence lawyer spewing venom, call for boycott of Muslim tribes

The 31-year-old lawyer known for his association with Hindu Ekta Manch, a right-wing organisations that openly support one of the accused in the case claimed to have been “receiving calls from the Hindu Mahasabha president and Hindu organisations in Maharashtra,” as he supports their demand for a CBI inquiry.

The advocate called the Manch a “peaceful and non-violent organisation” and added that it had to be formed because “people were under an Islamic attack”.

Continuing his attack on Mufti, Sharma said, “The order came as a tool for those people to use,” adding, “Everybody knows that state land, forest land have been encroached upon only by this community… They are coming from outside and capturing hundreds and hundreds of kanals of land.”

In fact, a video containing a speech of Sharma at a Hindu Ekta Manch rally where he called majority community for a boycott of Muslim Gujjars and Bakerwals from the region has surfaced and is going viral.