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Srinagar, July 11 (UNI) The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in Jammu and Kashmir has come down heavily on the authorities for registering a case against a deceased.

A single bench of Habibullah Bhat disposed off a case against Sajjad Ahmed Itoo, a resident of Sundoo village in Achabal area of Anantnag district, who had died during a gunfight between security forces and militants at Wanihama, Dhyalgam on January 20, 2002.

In his petition, the complainant, Khursheed Ahmed Itoo, had said that his brother, Sajjad, was killed in cold blood by the security forces.

On January 20, 2002, he said a gun-battle erupted between the troops of 3 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and militants at Wanihama, during which his brother, a carpenter, was killed.

The petitioner said, the militants had mistaken his brother for a police informer and abducted him, a day before his killing.

However, the respondents contended the petitioner's claim, saying that the Hizbul Mujahideen militants fired upon troops during a search and cordon operation and Sajjad Ahmed Itoo was killed in the retaliatory fire at Wanihama on January 20, 2002.

The village elders and some witnesses jointly submitted before the SHRC that the deceased was not involved in militancy and had died during the gunfight.

In their separate statement also the witnesses said that the deceased was not a militant and that they had heard gunshots in the evening and the next day his body was recovered from the spot. Even the post-mortem was not conducted.

While passing the judgement, Mr Bhat said on perusal of the record it was found that the police had registered a case, first information report (FIR) number 26, at the Anantnag police station against the deceased and filed a charge-sheet under Section 173 of the CRPC for offences 307 and 727 of the Indian Arms Act in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Anantnag.

The CJM disposed off the charge-sheet against the dead person as abated. ''Once a person is dead, there is no need for investigations and filing of a charge-sheet against him or her in the court of law,'' he said in his order on March 22, 2006.

''This case is abated. No court can take cognisance of a case filed against a deceased and, at first hand, it appears to be a unique example of covering misdeeds to justify the killing,'' Mr Bhat said.

He said, a case was registered and then investigations culminated in the filing of a charge-sheet against the deceased. The FIR, which had no mention of the date of filing, was produced in a court of law in March 2002, Mr Bhat added.

''This appears to be an exercise by the police to cover up the killing of Itoo in January 2002. The date of registration of the case has been suppressed and the fact of the matter is that, it must have been filed following protests and a lot of hue and cry over the unwarranted killing of a peaceful citizen,'' the SHRC member said.

He said the evidence produced by the complainants and documents, submitted during the hearing of the petition, clearly establish that Sajjad Ahmed Itoo had been killed in the gun-battle between the militants and the security forces on January 20, 2002.

''There was no casualty from the security forces' side and it must lend support to the fact that Itoo had fallen victim to the bullets fired in retaliation,'' the SHRC member said.

The Commission, therefore, recorded the case as one of the gravest human rights violations in the state.

Mr Bhat also recommended to the state government, through the Chief Secretary, to pay an ex-gratia relief of Rs one lakh to the family members of the deceased.

UNI