Don’t take coercive steps against Army officers: SC to J&K police
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the Jammu and Kashmir Police from taking any “coercive steps” against Army officers, including Major Aditya Kumar, who has been made an accused in the Shopian firing case in which three civilians were killed.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also asked the counsel for Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh, the father of Major Aditya Kumar, to share the copies of his petition with the office of Attorney General K K Venugopal and the Jammu and Kashmir government.
Besides seeking Venugopal’s assistance in dealing with the matter, the bench asked the state government to file its response to the plea within two weeks.
The apex court had on February 9 agreed to hear the plea of Singh seeking to quash the FIR against his son.
There will be “no coercive action” against Major Aditya Kumar, said the court, asking for a response within two weeks from the centre and the state to a petition by the officer’s father.
Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh had asked the court to cancel the FIR against his son, calling it “bad in law”. He also pointed out that Major Aditya Kumar was not even present at the spot during the firing.
Major Aditya Kumar was named in the FIR filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police after three were killed in firing at protesters in Shopian on January 27. The army had said that its soldiers opened fire in a desperate situation, trapped by over 200 stone-throwing protesters.
Lt Col Singh, a Kargil war veteran, said an FIR against serving army personnel had a “numbing effect” on the morale of soldiers operating against all odds in “inhospitable terrain” to “uphold the dignity of the Indian flag.
His petition said that the mob had isolated and attacked the army convoy. They threw stones at military vehicles and tried to lynch a Junior Commissioned Officer, after which warning shots were fired.
“The unlawful assembly refused to spare the Junior Commissioned Officer and, therefore, the fire was lawfully opened on the unlawful assembly with the aim of dispersing the violent mob and protecting government servants and property,” the petition said.
Singh has also referred to last year’s incident of a mob lynching DSP Mohd Ayub Pandith to apprise the top court about the situation in the state and the condition in which Army officials were working to control violent mobs in Kashmir.