The bodies of two women from Shopian, in south Kashmir, were pulled from the Rambiara stream on 30 May 2009, the morning after they failed to return from their family orchard. Their families and local residents alleged that security forces had raped and murdered them, and Shopian and much of the Kashmir Valley shut down for weeks. A judicial commission blamed police for destroying evidence, but in December 2009 the CBI concluded that both women had drowned and charged 13 people, including six doctors and five lawyers, with fabricating evidence. The families and separatist groups rejected the CBI's finding.
A stream searched through the night
According to the CBI chargesheet as reported by The Tribune, the two women went missing after visiting their orchard on 29 May 2009, and their bodies were recovered from the Rambiara nallah on 30 May Tribune. Kashmir Life reported that one body was found at a spot that police and the family had searched several times during the night, and the other about a kilometre downstream Kashmir Life.
The orchard was close to police and security force camps, Deccan Herald reported Deccan Herald. Local people alleged that the women had been raped and killed by policemen or security personnel for that reason Deccan Herald.
Government's position Police said at first that the women appeared to have drowned AP via Arab News. On 1 June Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told a news conference: "Primary findings indicate that they were neither raped nor murdered and they actually drowned." He added that people "are not ready to believe" this, so the government would set up a judicial commission to report within a month Kashmir Life.
Forty-odd days of shutdown
Within days, protests spread across the Valley. By 3 June, AP reported more than 200 people wounded since the bodies were found, razor wire and barricades at crossings in Srinagar, and the arrest of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had called a three-day strike and then an indefinite one AP via Arab News.
On 7 June police released forensic reports confirming that the two women had been raped, AP reported. By 9 June separatists had ended their week-long general strike, after a week that officials said left one person dead and more than 400 injured AP via Himalayan Times.
Shopian itself stayed shut. A Shopian Coordination Committee formed by locals organised early demonstrations, and the Majlis-e-Mushawarat Shopian, a local group, spearheaded the agitation Tribune Deccan Herald. On 29 June Geelani's Hurriyat faction called a three-day Valley-wide strike, saying the government had neither identified nor arrested the killers Deccan Herald.
How long Shopian stayed shut is a matter of whose count you take. On 15 July the High Court's Chief Justice referred to Shopian's "47-day-long protests and strike" Tribune. Kashmir Life later put it at 45 days Kashmir Life, and PTI in 2023 said Kashmir was at a near standstill for 42 days PTI via OrissaPOST.
The toll varies just as much. In December 2009 AP said weeks of protests had left at least two people dead and 400 injured AP via Arab News. Official sources quoted by The Indian Awaaz in 2023 put the June to December 2009 toll at nearly seven civilians dead, 103 civilians and 35 police and paramilitary personnel injured, and 251 FIRs registered Indian Awaaz. We could not check these official figures against a second source.
A commission, a court and the CBI
The Jan Commission
Justice Jan submitted a 150-page interim report on 21 June. On 22 June the government suspended the then Shopian SP Javid Iqbal Mattoo, DSP Rohit Baskotra, Inspector Shafiq Ahmad, SI Ghazi Abdul Karim and forensic scientific officer Javid Iqbal Hafiz Tribune. The commission recommended prosecuting the officers for destroying evidence and an inquiry into the doctors who did the post-mortems, Deccan Herald reported Deccan Herald.
The final report proved controversial. Kashmir Life reported that, apart from finding police failures, it cast aspersions on the women and their family, and that Justice Jan later distanced himself from those portions, blaming the investigating officer assisting him, SP Haseeb Mughal Kashmir Life Kashmir Life.
The High Court and the SIT
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court monitored the case on a petition by the High Court Bar Association. On 15 July a bench of Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqub Mir ordered the arrest of the four suspended officers and DNA tests on their blood samples Tribune. The High Court granted them bail on 12 September, ANI reported ANI via Oneindia.
The CBI
The state government decided on 12 August to refer the case to the CBI, after reports that samples had been tampered with. Omar Abdullah travelled to Delhi to meet Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to persuade the agency to take it up Kashmir Life. The CBI exhumed the bodies in late September Tribune.
Drowning, says the CBI, and fabricated evidence
Documented The CBI chargesheet, filed before a CBI court in Srinagar on 10 December and presented to the High Court on 14 December, said both women died of "asphyxia caused by antemortem (before death) drowning", based on AIIMS and CFSL reports. It said material in their airways matched earth samples from the stream, and that Flood Control Department records showed the water was high enough to drown them Tribune.
The CBI said the two local post-mortem teams had wrongly ruled out drowning and that AIIMS and CFSL experts found no sign of sexual assault. It cleared the four police officers and charged six doctors, five Shopian lawyers including the Bar Association president, and two civilians, including a relative of the women, under IPC sections on fabricating evidence and criminal conspiracy. The agency said the lawyers had induced and threatened witnesses to falsely implicate police and security forces Tribune.
Women missing, bodies found
The two women do not return from their orchard; their bodies are recovered from the Rambiara stream the next morning Tribune.
Chief Minister cites drowning
Omar Abdullah says preliminary findings point to drowning and announces a judicial commission Kashmir Life.
Five officials suspended
Action follows the Jan Commission's interim report Tribune.
Chief Minister apologises
Omar Abdullah says the government "did commit some mistakes" and tenders an apology Tribune.
CBI report, strike
Families burn a copy of the chargesheet; a Valley-wide bandh follows Tribune.
Two doctors dismissed
The administration terminates two charged doctors PTI via Kashmir Reader.
Cover-up or conspiracy
The families and separatists
Claim · Families, Majlis-e-Mushawarat The husband of one woman, also the brother of the other, said a body was found where he had already searched that night, and called the drowning explanation "strong proof" of police involvement. The Majlis said police and CRPF were responsible because both had camps near where the bodies were found Tribune. After the CBI report, the family and the Majlis accused the agency of hushing up the case and burned a copy of the chargesheet outside the High Court. High Court Bar Association president Mian Qayoom said the CBI had "let off the real accused and implicated innocent doctors, lawyers and civilians" Tribune. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq called the report politically motivated and backed the Majlis's call for an international probe AP via Arab News.
The CBI and the state government
Government's position The CBI said the women were crossing the stream to reach home and were swept away, and that doctors, lawyers and civilians conspired to falsify evidence "to discredit and cause injury to the police and security forces" Tribune. After the report, state Law Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said the CBI findings were not final and the government would wait for the High Court Deccan Herald. In the Assembly in 2013, Omar Abdullah publicly endorsed the CBI report for the first time, saying "the CBI inquiry revealed the truth about Shopian deaths", while regretting that he had disclosed the preliminary drowning finding in 2009 Kashmir Life.
The opposition PDP took the families' side. In December 2009 Mehbooba Mufti said the investigations were aimed at "shielding the culprits" and were done to prove the Chief Minister's initial drowning view Tribune. For the Centre, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in June 2009 that the government should act against the culprits but that parties and separatists "should not play politics over the dead bodies" Tribune.
A bandh against the chargesheet
On 15 December 2009 the Majlis-e-Mushawarat called a general strike, backed by Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah, and by the High Court Bar Association Tribune. Shops and offices closed, and protesters clashed with police in Srinagar's Maisuma and old city and in Shopian Deccan Herald. AP, quoting a police officer, said 18 protesters and six soldiers were injured AP via Arab News.
In 2018 the husband of one woman said "the case is dead" and questioned whether the PDP, then in power, had used it for political gain Feminism in India.
In August 2020 Omar Abdullah named the case as one of two incidents from his time as Chief Minister that he wished had been handled differently, Kashmir Despatch reported, citing Hindustan Times Kashmir Despatch.
Two doctors dismissed, 14 years later
On 22 June 2023 the Jammu and Kashmir administration dismissed Dr Bilal Ahmad Dalal, who conducted the first autopsy, and gynaecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen Chilloo, part of the second team PTI via OrissaPOST Tribune.
Claim · J&K administration Officials said the two had been "actively working" with Pakistan and its assets in Kashmir to falsify the post-mortem reports, with the aim of creating "disaffection against the Indian state". They also alleged that Dr Chilloo had submitted her own swab as a sample from one of the women PTI via OrissaPOST. The dismissals used Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution, which allows dismissal without an inquiry on security grounds Indian Awaaz. We found no report that made the evidence for the Pakistan link public, and none that carried the doctors' response.
The trial nobody has reported on
We found no verdict in the CBI's case against the 13 accused, and no news of the trial from 2024 to 2026. Nor did we find any court that has examined the 2023 allegation that the doctors acted for Pakistan.
Sources
- Tribune: Shopian women had drowned: CBI absolves 4 cops, chargesheets 13 for fabricating evidence, 15 Dec 2009
- Tribune: Call for bandh in valley today; victims' kin, Majlis burn CBI report, 15 Dec 2009
- Tribune: SP, FSL officer, 3 other cops suspended; medics join Shopian protests, 23 June 2009
- Tribune: HC orders arrest of cops, their DNA tests, 16 July 2009
- Tribune: Protesters seek Bar's inclusion; Azad assures strict action, 12 June 2009
- Tribune: Aggrieved family looks up to PM, 8 July 2009
- Tribune: Omar tenders apology over Shopian case, 16 Aug 2009
- Tribune: Transfer of Shopian probe to CBI, HC reserves decision, 27 Aug 2009
- Tribune: Don't share details with media, HC to CBI team, 1 Oct 2009
- Deccan Herald: Shopian murder case, 4 policemen suspended, 23 June 2009
- Deccan Herald: One killed in firing on protesters, 29 June 2009
- Deccan Herald: CBI's Shopian report cripples life, 16 Dec 2009
- AP via Arab News: Protests in Kashmir escalate, 4 June 2009
- AP via Himalayan Times: Protests continue in Kashmir, 9 June 2009
- AP via Arab News: Protests in Kashmir over CBI report on women's deaths, 16 Dec 2009
- ANI via Oneindia: CBI exhumes Shopian bodies, 28 Sept 2009
- Kashmir Life: The story so far, 2009
- Kashmir Life: Shopian to CBI, 2009
- Kashmir Life: Shopian returns to normal after 22 days, 29 Sept 2013
- Kashmir Life: CM first time endorses CBI report on Shopian in public, 2013
- Feminism in India: 9 years since the Shopian case, where is the justice?, 1 June 2018
- Kashmir Despatch: Shopian and 2010 summer continue to haunt me, says Omar, 20 Aug 2020
- PTI via OrissaPOST: Two J&K doctors dismissed for fabricating evidence in 2009 Shopian case, 22 June 2023
- PTI via Kashmir Reader: Two J-K doctors dismissed, 22 June 2023
- Tribune: Two J&K doctors sacked over false autopsy report, 23 June 2023
- The Indian Awaaz: Two doctors sacked for fabricating evidence, 23 June 2023