Srinagar: The Supreme Court has asked Sessions Court Bandipora to expedite trial into the fake encounter killing of a cloth merchant from Kokernag.
The merchant, Ghulam Nabi Wani from Nowbug Kokernag was picked up from outside Biscoe school in Lal Chowk where he plied a cart for selling cloths. A father of four children, Wani was also killed in fake encounter in Sumbal Bandipore district in 2006. He was passed off, according to SIT charge sheet, as Zulfikar Ahmad, a resident of Pakistan administered Kashmir.
A division bench of Justices N.V. Ramana and Mohan M. Shantanagoudar passed the orders while dismissing an application for bail by a police driver, Farooq Ahmad Padroo, accused along with the former SSP Ganderbal Hans Raj Parihar and others in the infamous fake encounter killings of Ghulam Nabi Wani as well as that of a carpenter Abdul Rehman Padroo who was also resident of Kokernag.
“The Special Leave Petition is dismissed. Pending application filed in the matter also stands disposed of,” said the court, adding, “Having regard to the facts and circumstances of this case, we direct the concerned Trial Court (sessions court Bandipora) to expedite the trial.”
Farooq Ahmad Padroo had moved the apex court against J&K high court’s dismissal of bail to him in December 2017.
Padroo is facing trial in two cases—FIR No.52/2000 police station Sumbal for commission of offences punishable under Sections 302 (murder), 364(abduction), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201(causing disappearance of evidence), 344 (wrongful confinement) RPC and FIR No.06/2007 at police station Batamaloo for commission of offences punishable under Sections 302, 364, 120-B, 201 RPC.
While FIR in police station Batamaloo pertains to the infamous killing of Abdul Rehman Padroo, one filed at Sumbal is regarding Wani.
Apart from Hans Raj Parihar, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has named DySP Bahadur Ram, ASI Farooq Gudoo, driver Farooq Ahmad Padroo, Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Constable Bansi Lal as accused in the fake encounter killings.
Besides cops and a civilian, the police had also chargesheeted Col. Vikram Singh, Maj. Rishi Khanna, V.K. Sharma, Puran Singh and Satpal Singh of 13 Rashtriya Rifles of army. If proven guilty, accused can face a death or life sentence.
The SIT had exhumed Carpenter Padroo’s body in Sumbal area of Bandipora district. He had gone missing from Batmaloo bus stand on 8 December 2006, and was allegedly taken to Waskoora Ganderbal where he was killed in the fake encounter by the accused, working with Special Operation Group (SOG) posted in Ganderbal and Sumbal camps.
The DNA taken from the body of Padroo matched with that of his relatives in Larnoo Kokernag, confirming that the killed ‘foreign militant’ was not Pakistani but the abducted carpenter.
Padroo was the lone son of frail old parents, father of five daughters, and the youngest was three months old when he was killed.
