Govt challenges acquittal of accused in High Court

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 26

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has approached the High Court with an appeal against the acquittal of fake dervish and rape accused Gulzar Peer.

Wanting the HC to quash the Sessions Court judgment, which set the fake faith healer free, the government has prayed for awarding maximum punishment to Gulzar and his accomplices.

The appeal follows an approval by the J&K Law Department on January 20, wherein it had directed Deputy Advocate General N H Shah to challenge the “modus operandi adopted by the accused or respondents in the commission of crime.”

The crime had shaken the collective conscience of the society and sent shock waves among the law-abiding citizens, the government said in its appeal before the HC.

Stating that the evidence in the case deserved reappraisal and re-appreciation by the High Court, the government had pleaded that the accused and his accomplices should be convicted and awarded maximum punishment.

While acquitting Peer, the Principal Sessions Judge, Budgam, in his judgment announced on February 12 had observed that “considering the oral as well as other evidence brought on record, it can be safely concluded that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the guilt of the accused.”

Gulzar was arrested on May 21, 2013, after four minor girls accused him of raping them in his seminary. He is currently in judicial custody.

Later, on July 7, the police had presented a chargesheet against Peer and his 12 aides in a Budgam Court, charging him of rape under Section 376 of RPC, while his 12 other accomplices, including four women, were charged under 376/109 of the RPC for ‘abetting the rape’ of minor girls.

Though Gulzar was released from jail on February 12 following his acquittal by the court, days later, on February 15, he was taken into preventive custody and subsequently remanded to seven-day judicial custody by a magistrate.