news details |
|
|
| Is CBI J&K’s tool for political firefighting? | | | Early Times Special
JAMMU, August 13: On March 20, 2000, unidentified gunmen swooped down on Chittisingpora village in Anantnag district and killed over three dozen Sikhs. Five days later, security personnel shot dead five persons and claimed that they were responsible to carrying out the Chittisingpora massacre.
Those killed by the security forces were then buried but their bodies were exhumed later when their relatives cried foul. DNA samples were taken from the exhumed bodies and matched with the relatives.
Two sets of DNA samples were sent for forensic examination, one to a laboratory in Hyderabad and another to Kolkata. It turned down later that the DNA samples were fudged. A couple of samples, purportedly on men, were blood samples from women.
All hell broke loose in the Kashmir valley and known as the Pathribal massacre case, it is still quoted by separatists as an example of high-handedness of security forces.
Nine years down the line, in another case, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, has now alleged that the officials have tampered with the DNA samples of Neelofar and Asiya, two women who lost their lives on May 30 in Shopian. She based her allegations on newspaper reports though the government has tried to discount/discredit the reports in a subtle manner.
Ms Mufti was given ample support by her party legislators in the Legislative Assembly and it was difficult for the Speaker, Mr Akbar Lone, to run the House. On constant haggling by the PDP members, it now appears that the government is seriously considering handing over the Shopian case investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
If only a Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court had not been monitoring the investigation, the case would perhaps been handed over to the CBI already, according to sources in the home department.
What should be clearly understood is that the CBI should not be used as a convenient tool for political fire-fighting. The more it is used in this manner, the less effective it is likely to become.
The Shopian rape and murder case has become so politically hot that the government appears virtually willing to go to any extent for cooling the tempers in the Valley. The case had also given a handle to the PDP to almost paralyse the functioning of the government for some time.
What will happen in case the Shopian case is handed over to the CBI? The answer is fairly simple that the CBI will then investigate the case. What happens when the CBI investigates a case?
Do guilty get caught or punished whenever the CBI investigates a case? Not necessarily. The CBI is widely believed to be free from political interference but politicians have often alleged that the ruling party (at the Centre) can use the CBI for its own ends.
The point that needs to be pondered here is whether a CBI inquiry will hasten or slow down the investigations into the killings of the Shopian women. Further, a special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the High Court and headed by Inspector-General of Police (Kashmir), Farooq Ahmed, is already on the job.
Given all this, it appears that handing over the Shopian case investigation to the CBI may serve some political purpose but it may also slow down the investigation into these killings. This is likely to happen because the CBI will have to start afresh, almost a case of re-inventing the wheel, when substantial ground work has already been done by the SIT.
Spare a thought here for those in the SIT, including its chief, who would have spent considerable time and invested enough effort to get to the root of the killings. Will all their work go into the dustbin because, may be, it is politically expedient to hand over the probe to the CBI?
By the way, the CBI had inquired into the DNA tampering case pertaining to the Pathribal killings also. It has even filed a case against five Army officers under Section 302, 120-B etc. But the case has not made much progress as it is embroiled in legal technicalities over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Incidentally, the hearings in the case pertaining to the kidnapping of Rubiya Sayeed, an incident which happened almost two decades ago, is still continuing in a court in Jammu. Those accused of her kidnapping and facing trial, including Yaseen Malik, Javed Mir and Nanhaji etc routinely appear in the court and the case may drag on.
Ms Mehbooba Mufti has been taking the cases of alleged custodial killings, rapes etc with a gusto. Between 2002 and 2008, when her PDP was in power in the coalition government, there is no record that she protested even once for speedy trials in any cases.
The cases pertaining to the killings of Air Force personnel by militants, of killings of Kashmiri Pandits etc are also pending in the courts for decades. No efforts have been made to speed up trials in these cases and bring the guilty to book.
If the CBI indeed investigates the Shopian case, will the guilty be brought to book speedily?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
