High Court tells DGP to hand over probe to SP

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 16

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has asked the Director General of Police (DGP) to hand over investigation of the case involving an acid attack on a law student last week in Srinagar to the Superintendent of Police concerned.

The court has directed the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, to personally monitor the probe into the case.

The High Court has also directed the government to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the acid attack victim, undergoing treatment at an eye hospital in Chennai. She was shifted there from the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, where she was initially admitted.

The directions were passed by a Division Bench of the High Court today in a public interest litigation by the Kashmir High Court Bar Association, which is seeking investigation into the acid attack case by a Special Investigation Team, headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police.

“The SP (concerned) shall carry the investigation regarding the case FIR, pending in Police Station, Soura, about the incident which took place on December 11, 2014. The Director General is directed to hand over the investigation of the case FIR to the SP (concerned). The IGP, Kashmir, shall monitor the investigation personally,” the court observed in its orders today, asking the police to report compliance of the court directions by next week.

“Meanwhile, Rs 1 lakh as compensation be paid to the (acid attack) victim immediately,” the court further said, asking the state government to implement all directions and guidelines passed by the Supreme Court in the Laxmi versus State case, which also includes ban on sale of acid in the market.

The lawyers’ body has sought directions to the state administration to implement the Supreme Court guidelines, banning over-the-counter sale of acid without following a set procedure, maintenance of a log register by sellers and recording the name of the buyer with address and purpose of its use.

The Bar in its PIL has also sought directions to amend the J&K Criminal Procedure Code and inserting the provision of Section 357-A of the Central Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers trial courts to recommend the grant of compensation to victims of criminal offences and requires every state government to frame a ‘victim compensation scheme’ in consultation with the Centre and allocate separate funds for it.

The High Court intervention is sure to increase the pressure on the police investigators who despite passing of six days are groping in the dark as for as the identity of the attackers is concerned.

Though the police has been working on several leads, including the CCTV footage from Srinagar Airport, where the attackers were believed to have gone while trying to flee, the police is yet to identify the attackers as the CCTV footage has not proved helpful, sources said.

Two unidentified youths, travelling in a Maruti car, had thrown acid at the law student outside her college in the Nowshehra area of Srinagar on Thursday, inflicting serious burn injuries on her face. Her right eye was also damaged in the attack.