The Bar Council of India will send a team to Kathua and Jammu to investigate the conduct of the bar associations of the two districts in connection with the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl.

On April 9, a group of lawyers had tried to stop the police in Kathua from filing a chargesheet against the accused in the case. The bar associations of Jammu and Kathua had publicly supported the lawyers. On Friday, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Bar Council of India and the two bar associations.

On Sunday, the Bar Council of India asked Jammu’s bar association to immediately end the strike it began on Wednesday after the police filed a case against the lawyers, ANI reported.

The chairperson of the council, Manan Kumar Mishra, said a five-member team will go to Kathua and Jammu to “talk to people” about the conduct of the bar associations, and that the council will ask the Supreme Court for two more days’ time to submit its response. The court had asked for a response by April 19.