Terrorist moves SC,questions TADA provision

The Supreme Court agreed to consider a petition filed by a convicted Kashmiri terrorist challenging the validity of a TADA provision.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a petition filed by a convicted Kashmiri terrorist challenging the validity of a TADA provision that made confession before a police officer an admissible evidence.

The convict Ashiq Hussaian Faktoo claimed Section 15 of the TADA,which made such confession admissible,was unconstitutional as the same could be obtained under duress by a police officer and claimed there have been conflicting judgments on the validity of the provision.

Section 15 is a significant departure from Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act which makes confession before a police officer inadmissible in a court of law unless corroborated by other evidence.

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A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma refrained from issuing notice to CBI but asked the convict’s counsel and former Chief Justice of the J&K High Court B A Khan to furnish certain details to examine the claim.

Faktoo,along with certain other terrorists belonging to “Jamait-ul-Mujahidin”,had abducted and shot dead noted human rights activists H N Wanchoo on December 5,1992.

A designated CBI court had acquitted him and two others of the charge of killing but on an appeal from the investigating agency,the Supreme Court in 2006 reversed the acquittal and sentenced him and the other two to life imprisonment.

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