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Kathua Case Lawyer Deepika Rajawat Slams ‘False’ News About Collecting Money

Even as the Kathua rape case is being hotly debated, Deepika Singh Rajawat, the defense counsel for the eight-year-old victim, has alleged that in a probable attempt to malign her, one “Mr Bhatti” wrongly implied that she spent her last few days at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to mobilise “vast amounts of money” in the name of the Kathua victim.

She said that Bhatti implied this in an interview given to Zee TV anchor Sudhir Chaudhary in a programme called DNA on April 17, 2018.

“My attention has been drawn to a news broadcast on Zee TV (on the programme DNA) dated April 17, 2018, in which a false statement has been made by one Mr Bhatti to the anchor Mr Sudhir Chaudhary, that I have spent the last few days in JNU. I categorically deny that I have never set foot in JNU. The statement is false to the knowledge of Mr Bhatti and is calculated to malign me,” she said in her statement.

A Zee TV video available online has one Waqar Bhatti speaking to the Zee News correspondent. Bhatti, in the video, alleged that the activist Talib Hussain spent his days in Delhi and visited JNU and other campuses to mobilise money for the victim. He mentions Rajawat, too, but in the context of her statement that she was ashamed of her community’s support to the accused. Bhatti implied that Rajawat should not have said so as there were only a few people in her community defending the accused persons.

Rajawat, however, appears to believe that by speaking about Hussain and Rajawat together, Bhatti also levelled “innuendo” against her.

“The said Mr Bhatti has also implied that vast amounts of money has also been collected in the name of the Kathua victim, and speculated whether the money has actually reached the victim or her family. When read in the context of the reference to me, there’s an innuendo that I could have received money. I wish to make it clear that I have not accepted any money from any source for my legal representation in defence of the Kathua victim. My entire legal team – including Mr Sunil Fernandes, advocate-on-record, Ms Indira Jaising, senior counsel, and Lawyers Collective in Delhi – has provided legal services pro bono, and has made a clear declaration that they are providing legal services free of charge,” she said.

In her statement, she also drew attention that her Twitter handle, which she says she had stopped using, has been hacked and reactivated, for which she has also lodged a complaint with the cyber cell of the Delhi police.

She said, “I also wish to give notice to the public that my attention was drawn this afternoon to a  Twitter account bearing the name “Deepika Singh” with the Twitter handle @DeepikaSRajawat carrying the banner photograph of the Kathua victim. I wish to give notice that the said account has been hacked in order to reactivate it…Although the said Twitter account was created by me some years ago, it has not been operated by me since then at all. ALL the tweets that appear on the said account (@DeepikaSRajawat) at present have not been put out by me and I request you not to be misled into believing that I have posted the tweets.”

She said the hacked account was using the “exact content as posted by me on my Facebook account”.

She added that until recently she was using only @DeepikaSinghR15 as her handle but has deactivated all accounts since.

Her complaint assumes significance also in light of the victim’s parents informing the media that they had not consented to revealing their daughter’s name or her face. Since all the said impersonations of her Twitter handles have used the victim’s signifiers, Rajawat could be implicated in the future.

Given this backdrop, “The photograph of the Kathua victim has been put on the banner with the malafide intent of lodging a criminal complaint against me. It has further come to my knowledge that such a complaint has been lodged by one Mr Vibhor Anand claiming to be an advocate, at the police station of Patel Nagar, New Delhi.”

Her statement has come at a time when there is a full-fledged campaign by the Hindutva supporters to defame all those who have been critical of BJP’s callous handling of the case.