The Jammu & Kashmir government has ordered the Crime Branch to investigate the alleged sexual assault and death of a tribal teenager in Kishtwar, amid allegations of a cover-up in the case.

The move comes days after allegations of prolonged sexual abuse of the minor and a subsequent abortion attempt that preceded her death sparked protests across the district.

Officials told that the Crime Branch has initiated the process to take over the investigation from the Special Investigation Team currently probing the case. The move comes after at least six people, including a nurse and a sweeper at the Kishtwar district hospital, were arrested for alleged complicity after the girl was brought there for an alleged abortion attempt that proved fatal. She died soon after.

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The others arrested are the accused headmaster and three of his relatives.

The petition said the girl was seven months pregnant at the time of her death.

The handover comes amid a writ petition filed by the girl’s father in the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, which alleges a cover-up. The father said he became aware of his daughter’s pregnancy only after she was taken to a health centre a fortnight before her death. He alleged that the doctor there refused to inform the police and instead asked him to do so. Being “unlettered” and “living much below the poverty line”, he said, he did not know the procedure.

He further alleged that once the pregnancy came to light, the headmaster and others linked to him — including a local chemist and two teachers — tried to cover it up.

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“The role of each of these persons, their communication with the accused headmaster and others, and their knowledge concerning the pregnancy and the circumstances thereafter require investigation,” he submitted. “The circumstances in which the minor victim was brought to Kishtwar, the persons who accompanied her, the medical facility where the ultrasound was conducted, the medical records generated and the persons who were informed of its result are all material circumstances requiring investigation.”

He claimed that once the pregnancy was confirmed, a panchayat was convened to pressure the family into a settlement.

He further alleged that the suspects took the girl to local medical facilities to terminate the pregnancy and that, on August 19, she was taken to the Kishtwar hospital, where an attempt was made to terminate the pregnancy. Her condition subsequently deteriorated, and she was taken to another healthcare facility in Doda, where she delivered a stillborn child, the petition alleged.

At the second healthcare facility, the petition alleged, she was shown in medical records as the wife of a person identified as the 13-year-old son of a relative of the headmaster.

She died soon after.

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The case, the petition said, required investigation by an independent specialised agency considering the age of the deceased, the nature of the allegations, the position held by the accused as a government school teacher and attempts to “suppress” the matter.