SC orders exhumation, autopsy of Srinagar youth

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that exhumation and autopsy of the body of a 26-year-old man, who was killed allegedly by police at Tengpora in Batamaloo area of Srinagar on July 10, would be carried out under the supervision of the District and Sessions Judge.

Abdul Rehman Mir had alleged that his son Shabir Ahmad Mir was killed by police at his home on July 10 while the Jammu and Kashmir Police had claimed that he died during protests in the Valley.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi assured the court that the probe would have the highest level of transparency and that the authorities would leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of the case.

The bench comprising justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said that the district and sessions judge of Srinagar would be at liberty to have the assistance of officers of his choice for the impartial exercise of carrying out the exhumation and autopsy.

It said that all steps would be taken in accordance with the law and ordered that the entire exercise be completed within three weeks before posting the matter for further hearing on September 5.

The bench observed that it is a serious matter and such a situation should be handled with humane approach and extreme sensitivity.

The court passed the order after perusing the report submitted by the state police on the circumstances leading to the killing of Shabir Ahmad Mir.

The report, which was filed in a sealed cover, also contained the order of the district magistrate who had directed exhumation and autopsy of the body of the victim.

The attorney general requested the bench that the matter be taken up after the post-mortem report comes out and also that the father of the victim should join the investigation.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the victim’s father, said that the detailed first information report was lodged within 20 minutes of the incident which is an unlikely thing to happen.

He said that the autopsy will determine whether the victim was killed as a result of pellet firing or the gun shot.

The attorney general said the state government was ready for imposition of any conditions for carrying out the exercise of exhumation and autopsy as it was not treating the case as an adversarial matter and there will be a fair and impartial enquiry into the incident as Sibal has sought.

Sibal said the incident was not a case of ‘one transaction’ as depicted in the FIR.

While Sibal said that the transparency and fairness in the probe would send the right message, Rohatgi submitted that probe would have the highest level of transparency.

The bench had earlier stayed contempt proceedings initiated against the senior superintendent of police and inspector general of police (Kashmir range) for not lodging an FIR against the police men, including a deputy superintendent of police allegedly involved in the killing of Mir.

It had also issued notice to Mir’s father on the plea of the Jammu and Kashmir government.

The chief judicial magistrate, Srinagar, had on July 18 directed the SSP to file an FIR against DSP Yasir Qadri and others on an application of Mir’s father.

Later, contempt proceedings were initiated by the CJM on account of non-filing of the FIR against the police officers in connection with the incident.

The family of the deceased has contested the state’s plea, claiming the killing to be a separate incident which had nothing to do with the FIR registered by the police.

Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Umar Ganie