Chargesheet against 5 in Pathribal encounter case

New Delhi, May 11 (UNI) The CBI today filed a charge sheet in the court of Special CBI Magistrate, Srinagar, against five Army officers for killing five innocent civilians in March 25, 2000 at village Pathribal, in a fake encounter.

The court issued a notice to the Army seeking information whether the latter wants a civil trial or go ahead with court martial proceedings by the next date of hearing.

The CBI took up the investigation in February 2003.

During investigations, it found that subsequent to the killing of 36 Sikhs at Chhittisingh Pora on March 20, 2000, five personnel of the Army unit of 7 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), stationed in Anantnag picked up innocent people and stage-managed an encounter to create an impression that the millitants responsible for Chhittisingh Pora killings had been neutralised.

The accused admitted to have receivedthe information regarding militants from the then SSP Anantnag in the previous night and carried out 'Operation Swift' in Panchalthan forests in the morning of March 25, 2000 resulting in the death of five civilians. However, police officers denied having passed any such information.

CBI also found that the accused showed fake recovery of arms and ammunitions from the five deceased after obtaining signatures of two local civilians on blank papers and subsequently filling in the details on a typewriter.

Three of the five killed suffered extensive burn injuries and the bodies were charred establishing that it was a fake encounter and the bodies were burnt to pre-empt identification.

The accused include Brig Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh, Maj Saurabh Sharma, Maj Amit Saxena and Subedar Idress Khan.

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