Says DespiteCries By Deceased’s Wife, He Carried ‘Horrendous Murder’ As Such Doesn’t Deserve Bail
Srinagar: A court in Bandipora district has rejected bail plea of a policeman, one of the accused of picking up several civilians, murdering them in staged gunfights and passing them off as militants for money and awards.
The accused policeman Farooq Ahmad Padroo, had moved bail application in connection with a case—FIR 52 of 2006 which pertains to the alleged fake encounter killing of one Ghulam Nabi Wani from Nowbug, Kokernag. Wani was allegedly 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 an alleged fake encounter in Sumbal Bandipore district in 2006. He was passed off, according to the SIT charge sheet, as Zulfikar Ahmad, a resident of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
“No doubt, the present set of case law cited by the learned counsel of the petitioner (Farooq Ahmad Padroo) highlighted the scope of detention during trial of the accused involved in heinous crime like murder and their right of bail. However, the same is not applicable to this case because at present if there is any delay in the conclusion of the trial that delay is attributed not to the prosecution but to the other co-accused persons who had moved the transfer application before the High Court for the transfer of the present charge to Jammu,” Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Bandipora Amit Sharma said and rejected the bail plea.
“It is proper to highlight this fact that the accused persons who are involved in this FIR are none other than the police officers/officials and under the garb of the Police uniform such type of “Fake encounter was committed definitely shaken the basic faith and confidence of the common man in the working of the police organization and the crime committed by this accused person become more severe simply because of this reason and stated by learned Public Prosecutor that the deceased who was brutally killed in this encounter was actually the resident of the village of the accused and the said deceased who used to sell Dastarkhan sheets (cloth) on the Biscoe School pavements,” he said, adding, “It is from this place (Biscoe pavement) when he had been lifted by the police team. Thereafter he was kept in the SOG Camp at Manasbal and in between period the PP submitted that “the wife of the said deceased approached the petitioner for tracing out her husband who was missing then and not returned to his house as the wife of the deceased being the poor lady was having only the approach of the petitioner who was working as a police official and from the village of the said deceased.” But the petitioner (Farooq), the court said, “never ever bothered about the tears and cry of the wife of the deceased and cleverly carried forward the nefarious design and mode of committing this horrendous crime of murder, meaning thereby any concession of bail either on medical ground or on other ground at this stage of the trial definitely shaken the spine of the common man in the present setup of criminal justice system.”