Srinagar: Case against Bitta Karate adjourned

Srinagar, May 23

A Srinagar court today adjourned the hearing of a case against Farooq Ahmad Dar, alias Bitta Karate, accused of killing Pandits during the armed insurgency in the 1990s. The case was adjourned until June 7 as both the petitioner and his counsel didn’t appear. Citing security concerns, Advocate Utsav Bains, who is appearing for the petitioner, has decided to move the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for seeking transfer of the case.

The counsel of the family of Satish Tickoo, who was shot dead on February 2, 1990, filed the plea for adjournment of the case after he accused the J&K police of failing to provide him security. However, the police denied the accusation.

Of the four hearing dates, Bains appeared in the first hearing when the judge had asked the rival counsels to prepare formal documents to contest in the court. Karate as well as JKLF chief Yasin Malik are in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of funnelling funds from Pakistan into terror activities in Kashmir.