HIGH COURT RULES OUT REINVESTIGATION IN SHOPIAN CASE Srinagar, July 15: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has ruled out re-investigation on the basis of Jan Commission report into the ‘double rape and murder’ case of Asiya Jan and Neelofar whose bodies were found near Rambiara Nallah in Shopian district of South Kashmir in 2009. “The very basis of the medical and other evidence, whereupon the Jan Commission had based its findings and conclusions, has been found to be absolutely false in the investigation by the CBI. Therefore, Jan Commission report itself cannot form a basis for this Court to order fresh investigation into the entire episode,” ruled a division bench of Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice D S Thakur in their 42-page judgment which was reserved for decision in August last year. “We feel that (since) the investigating agency, the CBI, has completed its investigation and presented the charge-sheet, no further monitoring is required by this Court,” the bench said. The bench however made it clear that should there be any additional evidence or factor available other than the one on record which has an important bearing in the case, nothing would prevent the trial court in examining the same in accordance with the powers exercisable by it under Section 173(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code. Citing the CBI investigation, the bench said, the report of the Jan Commission even though not a binding on an investigating agency was based on evidence the substance whereof was shaken by the investigation conducted by the CBI. “The CBI in its investigation has pointed to the falsification of various post-mortem reports and fudging of evidence by the doctors involved in the post-mortem examination of the two deceased ladies. The slides sent for scientific examination were allegedly fabricated,” the court said. The victim family had filed the petition through Advocate G N Shaheen pleading that given the dissatisfaction of the family with the earlier investigations, the court should order reinvestigation of the case through an agency comprising officials “whose integrity is above reproach.” Seeking reinvestigation of the case on the analogy of probe in the Best Bakery Case in which the Supreme Court appointed a Special Investigation Team of the officers of integrity, Shaheen submitted that a SIT of officials of impeccable integrity needs to be constituted to reinvestigate the Shopian case. Underscoring the need for reinvestigation, the family’s counsel had contended that there are contradictions in the investigations carried out by SIT, CBI and the Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Muzaffar Jan. On May 29, 2009, Asiya Jan, 17, and her sister-in-law, Neelofar, 22, had left for their orchard at Degan Batpora village of Shopian, failing to return home in the evening. Next day their bodies were found near Rambiara Nallah. The death triggered massive protests across the Valley following which the government ordered probe by SIT and the Judicial Commission. The CBI took over the case on September 17, 2009. On December 14, 2009, the CBI concluded death of the two women “due to drowning”, which was in contradiction to the one-man Judicial Commission headed by Justice (retired) Muzaffar Jan. The Commission said it was impossible for someone to drown in water level of knuckle height in the stream—Rambiara Nallah—from the banks of which the bodies were recovered. The one-man commission of inquiry submitted a 400-page report to the government in which it called for more investigation into the role of forces in the incident. #Muneer
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 02:23:13 +0000
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