Army seeks time in Kashmir fake encounter case

Srinagar, May 6: The Army has failed to produce its five men, including a Colonel and a Major, facing charges of killing a cloth seller in a fake encounter, before a court in Jammu and Kashmir's border district of Baramulla.

During hearing of the case in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Sopore, chief prosecuting officer (CPO) Bari Andrabi sought completion of legal formalities for initiating criminal proceedings against the Army men accused of killing Ghulam Nabi Wani allegedly in a fake encounter.

Wani, a resident of Nowbug, Kokernag in Anantnag district, had gone missing from Lal Chowk here on March 2 last year.

He used to sell cloth on a footpath at Lal Chowk here. Wani was later dubbed as a foreign militant.

Taking strong notice of the absence of the accused soldiers, the CPO said it has been established that the Army men and the personnel of the Special Operation Group (SOG) of the state police abducted Wani and later killed him, allegedly in a fake encounter.

The counsels for the Army sought time from the court to decide whether to initiate court martial proceedings against the accused soldiers or give consent for trial in a civil court.

After hearing arguments from both the sides, CJM Abdur Rashid Malik directed the Army to give their options whether to initiate court martial proceeding or go for trial in the civil court within a week. The case will come up for hearing on May 21.

On April 18, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police had charged Col Vikram Singh, the commandant of 13 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), his deputy Naveen Yadav, Hawaldar Mohan Das and Naik Manoj Singh with abduction and murder of Wani.

Former Superintendent of Police Hansraj Parihar, his deputy Bahadur Ram and three men of their escort Farooq Ahmad Gudoo, Farooq Ahmad Padder and Bansi Lal were also charged for the same offence.

All of them were present in the court.

The court had earlier directed the Brigadier of 3 Sector RR Manasbal to produce the accused army personnel before it on May 5.

A father of four children, Wani had been registered into police records as Zulfikar Ahmad, a militant from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, under FIR number 52/2006 filed on March 14. The security forces had also claimed to have seized arms and ammunition from his possession.

UNI