Even as Supreme Court says murderers in uniform not protected by AFSPA, Delhi rejects findings of police investigations against Army
In the past four years alone, the Home Ministry has rejected at least 42 requests to sanction the prosecution of military personnel found by the police to have engaged in crimes such as murder, homicide and rape in Kashmir, data obtained by The Hindu reveal.
Last week, two Supreme Court judges said the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) — which makes the Central government's sanction mandatory for prosecution — ought not to cover cases in which crimes such as murder or rape were committed. “You go to a place in exercise of AFSPA, you commit rape, you commit murder, then where is the question of sanction?” Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said.
Thirty-one of the cases in which sanction was denied relate to rape, culpable homicide or murder. The others involve a wide variety of crimes, ranging from criminal trespass to illegal confinement. In not a single case, The Hindu found, had sanction been granted.
Not a few of the cases in which sanction was denied involve victims unconnected with terror. In 1991, for example, the police established that an unidentified body floating in the Dal Lake was that of Muhammad Ayub Bhat, a Batwara resident with no record of involvement in terror.
Brigadier Gulshan Rao, then in charge of Srinagar's Field Ordnance Depot, was charged with his murder. The Ministry rejected the request for sanction on March 3, 2009.
Likewise, local resident Muhammad Ashraf Aul and a Major-rank officer were found responsible for an attempted rape of a Beerwah woman in 1997.
The case — initially closed and then reopened in 2001 after fresh evidence of the officer's identity emerged — was rejected by the Ministry on September 12, 2011.
In 1997, investigators charged troops of the 3 Kumaon Regiment with beating up Ganderbal resident Abdul Khaliq Wani, resulting in his death.
Adjutant Yoginder Mohan was held responsible by the police — but the request for sanction of his prosecution was denied on June 3, 2011.
The Army insists that it has court-martialled dozens of personnel for human rights violations, but will not release trial records or names, making it impossible to verify whether any of the alleged perpetrators were tried.
Officials of the Home Ministry would not discuss the cases on record, but said the investigations were conducted shoddily. A senior official noted that in 2010, Jammu and Kashmir had the lowest conviction rate among all the States for murder, at 17.1 per cent against the national average of 36.7 per cent. The conviction rate for rape was 2.1 per cent against 26.6 per cent nationwide.
Police officials, however, said the Ministry's rejection letters did not point to specific problems in the investigations, recording only that “no case is made out.” “How is it,” a senior officer said, “that the Ministry of Home Affairs gives our personnel medals every year for their investigation of terrorists, but can't find a single case where our findings against the Army are correct?”
The Ministry often takes years to process requests. The case the Supreme Court is now hearing dates back to March, 2000, when the Army killed five south Kashmir residents and allegedly passed them off as the Lashkar-e-Taiba men, who had shot dead 36 Sikhs in the village of Chattisinghpora.
In the years since, there have been several similar outrages: among them, the 2007 execution of villagers in Ganderbal by a rogue military unit, and at Macchel in 2010. In both these cases, sanction to prosecute is yet to be received, though the trial of other suspects, including police officers, has begun.
Keywords: AFSPA, Army in Kashmir, Army crimes
These actions do not go well for democracy of India already taking a beating with corruption every where. In the larger interests of the nation the judgement of court has to be respected. The situation is same every where India irrespective of region actually where ever the authorities come in conflict with people. 1. Police brutality on people . 2. When Army is involved, army brutality So there must be some way the authorities should learn to manage the people. Threatening and these kinds of action does not help any one..
Well written,, though the writer has mentioned just a few cases of
human rights violations by the forces. Kashmiris have been grappling
with these kind of crimes committed against them with no plausible
action taken against the culprits. When the forces themselves become
the judge, jury and the executioner, how can one expect fair play? And
to add to that complexity is the Home Ministry, which has done nothing
to bring justice to the victims. We always see the CM Omar Abdullah,
going viral on Twitter when such atrocities are committed with the
promise to deliver justice to the victims. But these 'outbursts'
always turn out to be an eye wash to placate the anger that people
feel with such acts.In this backdrop, the SC opinion comes as a
welcome relief, which needs to be followed up by the state.
So Narendra Modi's mistake was in using mere cops to carry out killings? Or do the borders of India not cover Kashmir and the North East? What faith do we expect the people of these areas to have in a state that paraphrases "If he's dead and Vietnamese, he's VC"? And we talk about human rights in the UN. I do not wonder at the quality of our men in uniform, who have demonstrated that a promotion was worth spending a few human lives on. But I do wonder about the quality of our society that raises such sons. And calls it antinational when someone says that Kashmiris and Manipuris are also human beings.
this is the shame side of the govt. and the defence.. they have forgotten the reason of their dress colour "khaki"..
if this type of situation continues., then how the poor kashmiries will join the main stream of our nation.. does any of us will support a person, who has raped our mother/sister.. obviously no.. then how they will...
if govt of india fail to punish the indisciplined military/ police officer,. then our country will fall in to the pit of gross negligence and huge loss to the law and order.. then it will be very difficult to recover from there....
on the grounds that it will demoralise the security forces let govt. of india not shield the black sheep among army. This will just serve as an another example of injustice done with the people of J&K theryby alienating them further. there should be some regard of the supereme court advise. let abuse of the so called holy book, "AFSPA" come to an end.
If USA can punish rogue elements in its armed forces who committed various crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan without causing any demoralisation of its forces ( actually it increased the prestige of US Armed forces), why cant India punish its erring soldiers? US forces do not enjoy any special privileges. The Supreme Court, with evidences already with them, should declare Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA )Void
The headline mars an otherwise well written and important piece. I hope the Editors speak some sense into copywriters who use language such as "killers" for those who haven't been prosecuted.
This will create more trust deficit between Kashmiris and New Delhi.I think NewDelhi is forcing Kashmiris towards one more summer unrest.on one side India considers itself as one of the largest democracy but on other side India is the country with largest human rights violations.when you are not following the rulings of supreme court ,how come it possible that any person especially Kashmiri will believe in your justice system.
It is a deplorable that a so called democratic country denies it’s own citizens even the right to prosecute people who have done them harm. What I don’t understand is the need to protect offenders in uniform. Can we assume then their offences are sanctioned by the federal government? If this is what is needed to hold Kashmir in Indian fold, then it is better to let it go. Because state sanctioned crimes know no limit or boundary. I am pretty sure the same has happened in Punjab, and Assam. The same is happening in the central sates affected by so called communist extremism. As citizens, it is our duty to voice our concern when the state steps out of boundary. Remember, the state also has to play by the rules that it expects it’s citizens to follow. How can a different rule be applied to civilians who commit murder and rape and a different rule be applied to people in uniform – who are supposed to be disciplined and held for a higher standard? This is a national shame.
This is disgraceful. No government worth the name can overlook such acts and more so if these are committed by the armed forces. How can AFSPA be cited for absolving such crimes as murder and rape by men in uniform? Has Manmohan Singh led government permitted the army to use murder and rape as a means to root out terrorism? It is beyond my comprehension why no political party, including the Left that stands for the downtrodden and the oppressed, is supporting Irom Sharmila who has been on a fast for over a decade for the withdrawal of the Draconian law that protects criminals and goondas in the army. UPA-II has become a synonym for corruption, criminality and inefficiency.
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