Parade Army personnel in a disappearance case in Kashmir, Court

Srinagar, Apr 18 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the state police to conduct identification parade of Army personnel held responsible for custodial disappearance of a pharmacist by an inquiry committee.

Justice Hakim Imtiaz directed the Station House Officer (SHO) of police station Saddar to identify the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) personnel allegedly involved in the custodial disappearance of Manzoor Ahmad son of Haji Ali Muhammad Dar at Rawalpora picked up by some unidentified security agency on January 19, 2002.

The judge after going through the case diary observed that no investiation has been held in the case for the past 7 months.

Justice Hakim directed the SHO to identify the accused army unit through Director General of Police and conduct their identification parade within 10 days.

The order came on a petiion filed by the family of Manzoor that their son was picked up by a security agency.

They said a complaint was lodged with the police station concerned.

However, after police failed to locate Dar's whereabout, his family filed a petition in the Court.

Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Budgam ordered a probe into the matter. The committee held RR responsible for disappearance.

After recording the statement of the eyewitness, the Court held troops of RR responsible for Dar's disappearance and directed police station Sadder to register a case against them.

However, the police did not implement the court order.

Finally, Dar's wife Jana Begum filed a case in the High Court, demanding initiation of contempt proceedings against the concerned station house officer.

On August 6, 2006, the court directed the police to register an FIR against the army unit concerned.

UNI