SRINAGAR: A local court in south Kashmir’s Anantnag on Friday rejected the bail application of a man accused of raping a 70-year-old Maharashtrain tourist in Pahalgam over two months ago, stating that the “revered” and elderly guest “was treated so shockingly in a land of saints and seers”, that she would forever regret her choice to visit Kashmir.
“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,” principal sessions judge Tahir Khurshid Raina said.
The alleged crime occurred on April 11. The prosecution told the court that the woman was alone in her hotel room in Pahalgam when the accused barged in, gagged her using a blanket, and raped her before fleeing through the window of the room.
“This court, which every day witnesses the reflection of the probity level of this society, expresses its concern that it is hopelessly getting eroded on various fronts,” the judge said. The sooner the “sheet-anchors, conscious keepers, watchdogs, and philanthropists of this society” rise to the occasion to check what is going wrong in the moral front of the society, the better it will be for saving Kashmir as the “paradise on earth in its truest sense”, he said. “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,” Raina added.
The judge said Kashmir’s rich cultural values, combined with hospitality par excellence, have attracted tourists from across the world. These tourists, in turn, have enriched the culture and value system of Kashmir to a level that matches the global standard of civilisation.
Raina said the crime has “cast a shadow over the said legacy of Kashmir” and also relates to Pahalgam, which is not known in the world today for good reasons, contrary to the status it enjoyed in the past.
“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,” principal sessions judge Tahir Khurshid Raina said.
The alleged crime occurred on April 11. The prosecution told the court that the woman was alone in her hotel room in Pahalgam when the accused barged in, gagged her using a blanket, and raped her before fleeing through the window of the room.
“This court, which every day witnesses the reflection of the probity level of this society, expresses its concern that it is hopelessly getting eroded on various fronts,” the judge said. The sooner the “sheet-anchors, conscious keepers, watchdogs, and philanthropists of this society” rise to the occasion to check what is going wrong in the moral front of the society, the better it will be for saving Kashmir as the “paradise on earth in its truest sense”, he said. “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,” Raina added.
The judge said Kashmir’s rich cultural values, combined with hospitality par excellence, have attracted tourists from across the world. These tourists, in turn, have enriched the culture and value system of Kashmir to a level that matches the global standard of civilisation.
Raina said the crime has “cast a shadow over the said legacy of Kashmir” and also relates to Pahalgam, which is not known in the world today for good reasons, contrary to the status it enjoyed in the past.
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