Army confirms Capt's dismissal in Amshipora fake encounter case

New Delhi, November 14

The Army has confirmed cashiering of Captain who secured a stay on his sentence of life imprisonment and a bail from the Armed Forces Tribunal in a case of killing of three civilians in a staged encounter in south Kashmir’s Amshipora in July 2020 and dubbing them terrorists, officials said on Tuesday.

According to officials, the findings of a Court of Inquiry and his conviction and sentencing were confirmed by the higher Army authorities on November 11 as required under the law.

He was brought to a civil jail in Jammu and later released on bail as per the directions of the tribunal on November 11 itself, they said.

According to the confirmation of the sentence, the officer was cashiered, or dismissed from service dishonourably. The officer, who joined the Army in 2015, will now be deprived of pension and all other benefits.

Three men from Rajouri district — Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrar — were killed in a remote Shopian village on July 18, 2020, and labelled as “terrorists”.

In its 25-page order delivered on November 9 suspending his sentence, the tribunal said the officer could not have any motive for the action and conducted such an operation without the knowledge of his senior officer. The tribunal, however, refused to stay his conviction and other punishments such as cashiering.

The tribunal’s principal bench here said: “As we have only stayed the sentence of conviction to the extent of undergoing the jail sentence, all other punishments like cashiering, etc. shall continue to remain in operation during the pendency of this appeal.”

The tribunal noted the counsel for the Centre had sought permission to promulgate the findings and sentence by the confirming authority and then shift the officer to a civil jail to serve the rest of the sentence of life imprisonment. It had directed the counsel to complete the proceedings by November 11.

Following the killings, doubts were raised on social media, prompting the Army to constitute a Court of Inquiry (COI), which found prima facie evidence that the troops had “exceeded” powers vested under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA.

The Court of Inquiry was followed by the summary of evidence, which was completed in the last week of December 2020.