Sexual assault: Nurse accuses police of trying to hush up case

The victim of the alleged sexual harassment by her senior officials in the Jammu and Kashmir health department today accused police of harassing her in order to hush up the case.
"After the lodging of the FIR against four officials of the health department, the police started harassing me... The police has become corrupt," the victim, a nurse by profession, told reporters here.
"Whatever I have said, I have not lied. I do not have any personal animosity against any of the officers. They are exploiting the Kashmiri girls. They compel them by recurrent transfers and call them to their cabins and rape them," she said.

The nurse said she was facing the sexual harassment over the past three months.
She claimed that sexual harassment of women has become routine and alleged that the perpetrators are getting higher positions instead of being brought to justice.
"What justice will we get from these people?" she said and appealed to all victims to come out and side with her so that justice is done.

The victim said she had reached such a stage where she was forced on to the road along with her children. "My honour has been ruined only because of the minister of health," she said.

On Thursday, police registered a case against four officials of health department following the complaint by the nurse that they tried to rape her here.
The complaint was lodged by the nurse, posted in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, against Director Health Services and three other officials.
Meanwhile, state health minister Taj Mohiuddin said the woman had approached him and he got the matter probed but her allegations were found to be baseless.
"I was anguished when she levelled the allegations against the officers of the health department. I got the matter inquired into and found that her allegations were baseless," Mohiuddin told PTI.

He said during the course of inquiry, it was also found that the woman was a habitual complainant and wanted "to take the system hostage".
The moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference has demanded a transparent probe into the case.
Chairman of moderate Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, said in a statement, "The molestation of a nurse by the head of the health department and other officers is an extreme case of moral bankruptcy and a cause for serious concern... We demand a transparent inquiry into the incident.