NBW against 5 Army personnel in Valley encounter case

The accused include Colonel Vikram Singh of 13 Rashtriya Rifles, his second in command V K Sharma, Major Rishi, Junior Commissioned Officer Puran Singh and Naik Satya Lal. They are accused of conspiring to kill Showkat Ahmad Kataria, a prayer leader at a Srinagar mosque, in the alleged fake encounter that took place on October 4, 2006.

The order was issued by Principal District and Sessions Judge Hasnain Masoodi after hearing counsel for the police who argued that the trial in the case was lingering for want of the presence of the accused Army personnel. The counsel for accused policemen, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, argued that the court should proceed against the accused Army personnel under Section 512 of the CrPC.

The Army’s contention is that no J-K investigating agency has the authority to probe its personnel until a prior sanction for it was obtained from the Union Government. In a revision petition pending before the court, General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps, has pleaded that the sanction for prosecution of the accused personnel should have been obtained “as per Section 7 of Armed Forces (J&K) Special Power Act, 1990” from the Centre. So, the Army has even refused the court’s direction to exercise the option of court martial before the decision on its petition.

The Army’s approach has been in contrast to the J-K Police, which arrested its senior personnel, including Senior Superintendent of Police Hans Raj Parihar and Deputy Superintendent of Police Bahadur Ram, soon after five fake encounter killings came to surface in the Valley early last year. The police were also prompt to produce a challan against seven policemen accused of abducting and killing a carpenter, Abdur Rehman Paddar. Paddar’s killing was the first to come to light. The chargesheeted policemen included the then SSP Ganderbal, Parihar; DSP Bahadur Ram; ASI Farooq Ahmad Gudoo; and constables Farooq Ahmad Paddar, Manzoor Ahmad, Bansi Lal and Zaheer Abbas.

They were charged for abducting Paddar, a carpenter of Larnoo village, and killing him in a fake encounter in south Kashmir district of Anantnag. The police later passed him off as a foreign militant.

... contd.