Petition in Supreme Court seeks court-monitored probe into 'genocide' of Kashmiri Pandits in J-K

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 24

A Kashmiri Pandits’ organisation has moved the Supreme Court seeking a probe by CBI/NIA or any other court-appointed agency into the alleged mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir during 1989-90, saying the J&K Police miserably failed to make any progress in hundreds of FIRs pending with them.

In a curative petition in the top court, Roots in Kashmir has questioned the court’s 2017 order dismissing a petition for a probe into alleged ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. Curative petitions are generally not taken up in open court and are heard by circulation among the members of the Bench.

"The instances referred in the petition pertain to the year 1989-90, and more than 27 years have passed by since then. No fruitful purpose would emerge, as the evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture,” the top court had said in its April 27, 2017 order.

Supported by a certificate issued by senior advocate Vikas Singh, the curative petition cited a 2018 Delhi order in a case relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots against former Delhi Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in which it had said: "It’s important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, truth will prevail and justice will be done..." Kumar – who was convicted in the case is currently serving a life term in Tihar Jail.

The petitioners demanded an “independent Committee or Commission to investigate into the mass murders and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90 and subsequent years, and also to investigate the reasons for non-prosecution of FIRs of murders of Kashmiri Pandits…” They also sought a court-monitored probe to ensure that the hundreds of FIRs reached their logical conclusion without any further delay.

The curative petition also sought a direction to complete the trial and prosecution of Yasin Malik for alleged gruesome murder of four officers of Indian Air Force on January 25, 1990. The case is currently pending before a CBI court.

Besides Malik, the plea also sought prosecution of Farooq Ahmed Daar @ Bitta Karate, Javed Nalka and others for hundreds of FIRs of murders of Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90, 1997 and 1998, lying uninvestigated by J&K Police even after expiry of 26 years.

The petition -- a summary of which was released to the press -- demanded transfer of all such FIRs pertaining to murders of Kashmiri Pandits, from J&K to some other state, preferably Delhi, so that the witnesses, reluctant to approach police or courts in view of their safety concerns, can freely and fearlessly depose before probe agencies and courts.

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