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| Govt maintains Yousuf died of 'cardiac arrest' | | Omar claims innocence, initiates defamation suit against PDP chief | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Oct 3: Breaking his silence after four days, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today asserted that PDP's accusation of the NC activist Syed Yousuf's custodial killing was "completely unfounded and unsubstantiated". He said that on his suo moto action, a sitting judge of Jammu & Kashmir High Court would hold a thorough and credible investigation into the entire episode but, at the same time, he would file a defamation suit against the PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, for the allegation of "murder" she had leveled against him and his father Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Addressing a crowded news conference after the final adjournment of today's sitting on the Legislature lawns, Chief Minister said that he had decided to remain tightlipped on the death of his party activist as he feared it could impact the judiciary inquiry he had ordered suo moto. "But when I realized that my silence was being used against me, I decided to make a statement to make things clear", Chief Minister said. He, however, added that he would not take any questions, either at today's news conference or thereafter until the judicial inquiry was completed.
Claiming that neither he nor anybody of his family, party or government had even an iota of involvement in Yousuf's death, Omar Abdullah said that in so-called rape-cum-murder case of Shopian in 2009, politicians and media had used his utterance (regarding prima facie observation) against him but, contrarily, today his silence was being used as a tool against him. He said that he would expect no good from his political detractors but made a passionate appeal to media not to report anything "merely on assumptions and unfounded allegations" or editorialize anything without substance.
According to him, there was no scope for the demand of his and his colleagues' resignation as he had immediately after Yousuf's death at Police Hospital asked IG Crime to investigate the allegation of two of his party workers against the third party activist. "As soon as the death occurred, I thought it necessary to order a judicial inquiry and directed my government to requisition a sitting judge of J&K High Court for conducting inquiry into the circumstances that led to our worker's death", he added.
Chief Minister said it was unfortunate that instead of appreciating his action, politicians and mediapersons carried stories, creating an impression as if Yousuf had been tortured to death at his home. He said that a judicial commission alone would dig out the reality and he would have no hesitation in producing himself before the inquiry. "If anything indicating death (by torture) is established in post mortem or the investigation, anybody found guilty would have to face punishment", he said.
"I have full faith in our judicial system and I'm sure that all the serious allegation leveled against me and my colleagues would prove to be baseless", Omar said. He said it was utterly unfortunate that PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had leveled serious allegation of "murder" against him which he would not contest in public. He disclosed that he had directed his lawyers to prepare and file a defamation suit in a court of law against Ms Mufti. He said that leveling baseless allegations and later revoking the same with apologies was characteristic of Ms Mufti's party.
Chief Minister was flanked at the news conference by a number of his Cabinet colleagues, advisors and senior officials, including DGP Kuldeep Khoda.
Within hours, DGP Khoda and Principal Secretary Home, B R Sharma, disclosed at a hurriedly press conference this evening that the death certificate issued by doctors had also established Yousuf's death as the result of "cardio respiratory arrest". They said that the final medico-legal opinion was expected to become available from FSL in a few days.
Sharma and Khoda revealed that a case under section 420 RPC (cheating) had been registered and Crime Branch was investigating the allegation of the two NC activists against the third one who later died at hospital. They said that District Magistrate had already ordered inquest proceedings under section 176 CrPC. They made it clear that a murder case could not be filed in absence of indicators in the inquest. According to them, murder (section 302 RPC) could be added to Section 420 RPC in the same FIR if any evidence of Yousuf's killing was found in the inquest or the judicial inquiry.
They released a statement of facts according to which Yousuf had come out without any marks of injury or complaint of physical torture from CM's house, cooperated with IG Crime in the preliminary questioning but had later complained uneasiness following which he was treated at Police Hospital. They revealed that all medical investigation, including USG and ECG, were found alright but next morning Yousuf's condition deteriorated suddenly and he was declared dead at 9.45 a.m. |
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