Kathua case lawyer declines ‘honorary membership’ of PoK Bar

Deepika Singh Rajawat, the lawyer representing the family of the Kathua rape victim, has rejected the honorary membership accorded to her by Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir Supreme Court Bar Association

Ashutosh Sharma

Published: 22 Apr 2018, 3:11 PM

Deepika Singh Rajawat, child rights activist and a lawyer representing the family of eight-year-old nomadic girl who was raped and murdered in Kathua, has rejected the honorary membership accorded by Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir Supreme Court Bar Association.

“I refuse to accept the commendation and honorary membership issued by this bar association. I call upon the Bar to withdraw both the commendation and the honorary membership,” said Deepika, which “have been declared without my knowledge and consent.”

A statement issued by ‘Azad Jammu & Kashmir Supreme Court Bar Association’ in Mirpur (PoK) on Saturday said that Deepika, a Kashmiri Pandit, has been awarded its honorary membership “in acknowledgement of her courageously agitating and representing the (case of ) rape and brutal murder of 8-year-old baby in Kathua despite intimidation and threats to her life and modesty from communal elements in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir.”

Notably, Deepika was expelled from the primary membership of the High Court Bar Association Jammu in 2013 after she raised hue and cry over death of a child, who was allegedly employed by a judge as a domestic help in his house.

Born as Deepika Thusoo in a Kashmiri Pandit family in a village in North Kashmir, she came to Jammu along with her family in 1986. Deepika, 38, has repeatedly told her detractors that she won’t be cowed down by people protesting on the street, shouting in TV studios and by those attacking her social media. She is in the eye of storm ever since she has taken up the case of the Kathua rape and murder victim.