Early Times Report
Srinagar, Mar 31: A Srinagar court on Friday listed the matter of reopening of criminal trial against Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate on May 4, in the murder of Kashmiri Pandit Satish Tickoo in 1990, the lawyer of Pandit family said.
Karate, a former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) commander is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail on charges of funneling funds from Pakistan into terror activities in the Kashmir.
Last year in September, the family of Tickoo approached the Srinagar court to reopen the trial against Bitta Karate. Tickoo family lawyer Advocate Utsav Bains, said the other side argued that Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL by the Roots in Kashmir seeking orders for investigation into cases of killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.
“ I argued that despite the SC dismissal, my right in a criminal law, in a cognizable offence, still remains. We all know that the situation has improved in Kashmir, and the family after 31 years, wants justice and closure in this case. So, we are making all efforts under the criminal law, under the CrPC, to get Bitta Karate on the trial, “ Bains told reporters after the court hearing.
He said that under the criminal law, the family had a right to take the other side for a criminal trial. “The family of Tickoo did not go to the Supreme Court.
We have not even filed an affidavit in the SC in the Roots in Kashmir petition. So, my right to criminal trial does not get affected by that PIL and the dismissal order,” he said.
About the video where Karate had confessed to killing Tickoo , the lawyer said it would be done in the course of arguments.
“ In that video Karate says that he killed Tickoo because he was a member of the RSS. It is a submission of a cognizable offence,” he said.
Before his arrest in funneling funds, Karate had earlier been in jail for several years between November 1990 and 2006. |
