Srinagar, Dec 14 - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday submitted its 66-page probe report into the alleged rape and murder of two women in south Kashmir Shopian district which triggered a massive furore in the Kashmir Valley this year.

The report was filed before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that was yet to decide whether to examine it in an open court or in-camera given the sensitivity of the case.

The two women, Nilofar Jan, 22, and her 17-year-old sister-in-law Asiya Jan, were found dead May 30 off a stream in Shopian, triggering a major uprising in the Kashmir Valley this summer amid allegations that the woman had been raped and murdered.

Shopian town, 50 km from here, observed a 47-day shutdown before the state government announced a one-man inquiry commission.

An autopsy report had confirmed that the women were raped and the government appointed commission alleged that four police officers were involved in destroying some of the key evidence following which they were suspended and arrested. The case was then handed over to the CBI in September.

The court had directed the CBI not to share its investigation with the media. However, some newspapers in Srinagar, indicating that the report was apparently leaked to them, reported that the central probe team has concluded that the women died of drowning and there was no foul play in the deaths.

The drowning theory corroborates the first statement of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on the incident. He later said he had been misled by the Shopian district administration and police.

The Delhi-based Independent Women's Initiative for Justice (IWIJ), which had sent its team to the valley on a fact finding mission, in its report released Thursday alleged that the Jammu and Kashmir government was involved in a major hush-up of the case.

The IWIJ report argues that as for "accidental drowning of the two women in the nallah (stream), where no one in recent or living memory has ever drowned, we would need to be more than merely credulous to believe that".

The IWIJ said that during its team's visit to Shopian in August this year it found that the water in the stream was only ankle-deep -- not enough for anybody to drown in it.

A division bench of the high court, comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Mohammed Yaqoob Mir, is expected to take up the case later in the day.

Some senior officers of the CBI were present in the court when the report was submitted to the court.  (IANS)