Jammu, Sept. 6 -- A conspiracy of silence that shadowed one of Jammu and Kashmir's most horrifying crimes has begun to unravel, as the Crime Branch on Sunday arrested an 85-year-old self-styled "community leader" accused of bribing the family of a Class 5 tribal girl to shield the school headmaster who allegedly raped her - a crime that ultimately claimed the child's life.
The arrest of Peer Bakash, who wielded considerable clout in Chatroo's tribal belt, has ripped the lid off an alleged village-level cover-up operation - one that investigators say was designed to bury the truth before it ever reached the police.
According to Crime Branch sources, Bakash did not merely stay silent. He allegedly stepped in as a fixer, summoning a shadowy ...