Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 10: The final hearing in the alleged fake encounter case involving the designate Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Bikram Singh, who was Brigadier 1-Sector Rashtriya Riffles of Army in South Kashmir when the encounter took place, is on May 16.
Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court today adjourned the case till May 16 for final disposal of the petition.
The Counsel for the Defence Ministry while arguing the case told the High Court that the Supreme Court has given clean chit to the Lt General Bikram Singh as a PIL has been dismissed by the apex Court and the case has become irrelevant. But Advocate Zaffar Qureshi of the petitioner told the Court that petitioner is seeking investigation into the alleged fake encounter and the dismissal of that PIL by the apex Court has no bearing on the petition filed by the mother of the victim.
It may be mentioned here that a woman, Zaituna Begam, from Macchil area of Kupwara district last year filed a writ petition before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court at Srinagar, alleging that her son Abdullah Bhat was killed in a fake encounter in Anantnag in March 2001 and later branded as a Pakistani militant ‘Mateen Chacha’. The woman sought directions from the High Court for reinvestigation of the case in which five persons, including two army men, were killed.
The dead included Colonel J P Janu, the then Commanding Officer of a local RR unit, Sepoy Ganesh Kumar, Muhammad Shafi son of Abdul Rasheed of Hazratbal-Anantnag, and Abdul Ahad Sheikh son of Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh of Janglat Mandi-Anantnag. Another person was killed in the retaliatory action of the army and police later identified him as a resident of Pakistan,’Mateen Chacha’. Zaintuna alleges that the third person who was killed in the encounter was not a Pakistani but his son.
All the respondents – the Defence ministry, the State Government and SSP Anantnag – who have been named as respondents in the case, had filed their objections to the petition and had sought its dismissal.
The Defence Ministry had termed the petition as an afterthought as it was filed a decade after the incident took place. The objections said that Lt Gen Singh, who was then a brigadier commanding the 1 Sector Rashtriya Rifles in South Kashmir, was returning to Anantnag after visiting various army units.
Later, when the army convoy stopped at Janglat Mandi in Anantnag, a militant disguised as a beggar opened indiscriminate fire upon the armymen, said the Defence Ministry objections filed before the High Court.
The SSP Anantnag in his objections had said the petition was not maintainable and people with vested interests, who had cases of subversion pending against them, were behind it. The State Government’s objections are same as filed by Senior Superintendent of Police Anantnag.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel