The Supreme Court's ruling on the requirement of previous sanction to prosecute soldiers accused of committing crimes may have clarified matters as far as the legal provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act are concerned but for the families of the five innocent men who were killed in a fake encounter at Pathribal, Jammu and Kashmir, in March 2000, it is still not clear whether or not they will receive justice. According to the chargesheet filed in the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2006, the five Kashmiris were picked up at random by the security forces from in and around Anantnag and taken to a desolate place where they were killed in cold blood. An FIR was filed by a detachment of Army men from the 7 Rashtriya Rifles in which the claim was made that the five slain individuals were the terrorists who were responsible for the massacre of Sikh villagers in Chittisinghpora a few days before the ‘encounter'. The bodies of the five were exhumed and claimed as their own by villagers who had complained about their family members going missing just before the ‘encounter'. DNA testing was done to establish their identity in two stages. In the first stage, the samples were deliberately switched to thwart the investigation. When this was exposed, a second test was done which conclusively fixed the identity of the five. This was in 2003. A case of murder was then registered and the matter entrusted to the CBI.
The CBI quickly established the sordid facts and filed a chargesheet in a Srinagar court in 2006. Six years had already elapsed. That court offered the Army the chance of trying its men before a court martial but the offer was not accepted. It has taken another six years for the legal battles which ensued to finally be resolved, with the Supreme Court upholding the claim of the accused soldiers that Central government sanction was needed to prosecute them. By asking the Army to take a decision on whether it intends to court martial the accused, the Supreme Court has cut through the careful posturing of the Ministry of Defence on the matter. It bears noting that at no stage did the Ministry seek to discharge its own obligation to ensure justice under the Army Act in the face of the cold-blooded killing of five innocent civilians by senior officers. That obligation can no longer be shrugged aside. The CBI has been directed to seek sanction to prosecute from the government if the court martial option is not exercised within eight weeks, and a decision on that request has to be taken within three months. For the families of the victims, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. For their sake, and the sake of Indian democracy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must do the right thing and ensure that the prosecution gets to have its day in court.
Keywords: Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, soldiers crime
The delayed justice is a denied justice. There is no point in waiting
for six years evading the trials and justice. My sincere regrets to
those families who lost their dear ones and waiting for this govt to
give justice. Media should show this to world.its the life of 5 people
who were brutally murdered by those soldiers who were getting paid by
the same taxpayers.Again Hindu proved its uprightness.
There are some disturbing comments here from people who seem to have
misunderstood the whole point. The young men that were executed were not
terrorists, not proven to be such but were picked up from their homes, taken away
and shot in cold blood. There could be any number of motives behind this from
personal vendetta, collective punishment to strike fear in the hearts of potential
terrorist sympathisisers or merely the desire to reach assigned annual goals of
killing a certain number of "terrorists".
Nobody is condoning the atrocities committed by terrorists. In fact, that is
precisely why they are called "terrorists". That the Army and the government as the
caretakers of justice cannot and must not be allowed to operate beyond the law by
carrying out arbitrary executions. Otherwise, what will be the difference between
them and the terrorists? India must not become Latin America or Africa!
AFSPA is a discriminatory act since it gives immunity to the perpetrators of a crime on the ground of national security. Where is
national security when there is no rule of law? Terrorists kill people
but they are not accountable to anyone. This is why we call them
terrorists. But the army is supposed to be protectors and if they act
without any accountability where is the difference between them and
terrorists. Hearing about what my friends from Manipur and Nagaland go
through because of this act (they have lost near and dear ones) makes
me question my place in this country. Why AFSPA should only be there
in a Muslim Kashmir or Mongoloid north east. Why not apply it to the
Maoist dominated area in the mainland? True the army is greatly
strained in these areas but if we have such brutal armies who needs
terrorists?
There are many of us in whose minds it must be striking that this issue of discussion is not relevant because it brings soldiers into the prosecution chamber. We must exempt soldiers from anything that they do because they are soldiers. It is completely alright if they massacre people on the pretext of suspicion that the people might be terrorist or maybe on any other pretext. We should first talk about the atrocities done by terrorists on our soldiers and civilian. We should approach the situation with tat for tat policy instead of analysis of cause and effect of the situation to store the social fabric. We should also think like terrorist who want to avenge with blood. We will allow our soldiers to avenge innocent people on the grounds of suspicion for the atrocities done by the terrorist. This should be our mindset and approach as suggested by some many fellow writers. We should avenge for Kashmiri Pandits, we should avenge for the violence in valley for the past 20 years.
if the army had been eager to courtmarshal those officers,then they would have done so to restore the faith of people in judiciary.in my view it was the most propitious time for judiciary to dwelve into the AFSA and pronounce clearly when sanction from center was needed to prosecute army officials.in this case which is clearly fake encounter,there was no need for prior sanction for the AFSA was not enacted to kill anyone but it was to empower them so that they could carry anti-militancy operation effectively without any obstruction.But this act has been used in unscrupulous manner with utter disregard to human rights.either the provisions of the act are ambiguous or the act as such has been inhumanly used.whatever be the reason,our judiciry should intervene actively and clear any ambiguity in the act so that it can be more humanly used.Also government should act proactively to look into the barbarous naure of the act and review it wherever needed to restore the faith of people in judiciary.
This is a crystal clear case of fake encounter. Seriously, is the system so rotten that Justice has not yet been done?
Those are accountable for protecting life of citizen,if they do such type of unacceptable crime,then where common people will go for their safety.Even after 12 yrs of the incident,the victim families are not getting justice it shows how fast our judiciary system.
Law is supreme. This delay in proceedings often degrade the meaning of justice. But for relieve our supreme court in mostly corrution free and this is an another instance.
This is not even the case of 5 people, a society, a region fully is
waiting for the justice. If the court win to execute the justice, it
will strengthen their belief in judiciary...
Your title of the write-up is evocative. A crime is a crime whether a soldier pepetrates it or a civilian does it. A soldier, during the course of his training, gets his brain rewired so as to orient it to show intense hostility the targeted. That implies that he may fail to act rationally. But that does not mean that he can get away with what he has done, if it is a transgression of law or rule. So, the prosecution is imperative to meet the ends of justice. The bereaved should not only get justice but feel that they got it.
why everyone is talking about people killed by army, why not those killed by terrorists. They had families too. Why supreme court doesn't bother about slain soliders and their families.
I ask a simple question- I know that right to live is everybody's right, but what about the rights of men who fight and die to protect people's rights..
Why is there no hue and cry when horrific human rights abuses are carried out by terrorists in J&K? Why have convicted terrorists like Mohd Afzal and Ajmal Kasab not been executed? Why have we allowed virtually free access across the Line of Control to Pakistani terrorists instead of fully sanitising the LOC? What is our policy about resolving the Kashmir dispute other than keeping it alive? What action did we take when Pakistani terrorists in conjunction with the majority community of J&K chased the Kashmiri Pandits out of the state? Can we have the answers to these questions first?
Absolutely devlish character of the crime makes it all the more imperative to make sure that the 'murderers' are brought to book. Indian army cannot hide behind nuances of law to protect its members who are shorn of all sense of humanity and respect for the very reputation of the institution they profess to serve. Also it is high time army itself is made more accountable for its acts and army officers, including the chief of the army, should be made to realise that the oilve green is an earned privilidge that cannot be tarnished by criminal and politically motivated acts.
I really do hope that the Judiciary would do justice to those suffering because of the apathy of the State. AFSPA has claimed the lives of many more innocent lives in J&K and more so in North East where it imposed from 1958 onwards. Atrocities in Kashmir has been highlighted in national and international level because Pakistan and other countries have an interest in this region. However the atrocities committed on the NE people who innocent are conveniently forgotten. This is the reason why insurgency is still active in most NE states. Insurgents create problems and the Army punish the common man. Insurgency will never be eliminated as long as the local population hate the Army more than the insurgents. No Justice for us and no one to fight for us except our own people. No international or national media to highlight our plight. We are the forgotten people.
The army officers must realize by the sentence of court that the powers given to them mustn't be misused.They are there to protect the people,but the justice shouldn't take this longer time.
The delayed justice is a denied justice.The UPA govt should act fast. There is no point in waiting for six years evading the trials and justice. My sincere regrets to those families who lost their dear ones and waiting for this govt to give justice. Media should show this to world. Its not a joke,its life of 5 people who were brutally executed by those soldiers who were getting paid by the same taxpayers.
Supreme court is now in full swing for providing justice to the citizens. The recent Judgements have been the bold and absolutely necessary for the citizens to believe in our judiciary system.
7 Rahtriya Rifles was very recently added to Mo Defence still then it was under Mo Home. So it was under Mo H when the crime was being held, so that the question of law arisess whwather Mo D or Mo H has the right authority to consider those cases.
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