Father of the Fake encounter victim deposes before Kashmir court

Srinagar, June 22 (UNI) A local court today recorded the statement of 70-year-old father of carpenter Abdur Rehman padder who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter by some policemen, including a superintendent of police (SP), in Kashmir last year to claim cash rewards and out of way promotions after dubbing him as a foreign millitant.

The court of Principal District and Sessions Judge, Srinagar, Mohammad Yaqoob Mir continued to record the statements of prosecution witnesses for the third consecutive day today.

In his statement, seventy-year-old Ghulam Rasool Padder, the father of carpenter Abdur Rehman Padder, said he had identified the body of his murdered son soon after its exhumation from a graveyard in Sumbal area on February one this year.

Padder said his son and a helper, Ghulam Ahmed Wani, a resident of Larnoo in Kokernag area of Anantnag district, together had travelled from Alesteng to Batamaloo on December 8, 2006.

Padder said his son later paid Rs 500 to Wani and went to meet a special operation group (SOG) driver, Farooq Ahmed Padder, who had called him for a meeting at Batamaloo.

Padder said he along with Wani then lodged a missing person report about his son at the Batamaloo police station on December 14.

Padder said the SOG driver along with some of his relatives looked for his son in several camps of the security forces in the Kashmir valley.

The old man broke down several times while recording his statement and answering the questions of the counsels of the accused.

While Wani had deposed before the court yesterday, assistant superintendent jail Ghulam Qadir Padder, a close relative of Padder, had recorded his statement.

Earlier, the court had charged seven policemen -- suspended SP Hans Raj Parihar, his deputy Bahadur Ram, assistant sub-inspector Farooq Ahmed Gadoo, prime accused SOG driver Farooq Ahmed Padder, constables Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Bansi Lal and Zaheer Abbas -- with abduction and murder of Padder, a resident of Larnoo, Kokernag.

The accused police personnel have denied the charges.

During the recording of the statement, special public prosecutor Farooq Ahmed Kathwari and chief prosecuting officers Qazi Manzoor and Bari Andrabi, and counsels for the accused Ashok Parihar, Mushtaq Ahmed Dar and Gazanffar Ali were present in the court.

UNI