Liah Qureshi
11 months after the Supreme court stayed the arrest of Major Kishore Malhotra of Rashtriya Rifles, the hearing of the case will be held on 3 oct 2016.
The case has come up in the SC after the J&K High Court had asked Union Defence and Home ministry to respond to an application moved by the family of Manzoor Ahmed Dar seeking their array in as party to the case.
Manzoor Ahmad Dar, a 34 year old man was picked up by the Rashtriya Rifles along with two other men on the night of January 18/19 in 2002.
While the two other persons were released the next day, Manzoor never came back from custody.
After days of protests, the police filed a case of abduction against the army and as the investigation went ahead and Major Kishore Malhotra of Rashtriya Rifles surfaced as an accused.
This case took different turns and twists during the past 14 years, hogged the headlines when on November 26 last year the J&K police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident concluded that Manzoor “could have died in custody of Army’s 35 Rashtriya Rifles led by Major Kishore Malhotra after he was abducted from his residence and his body could have been disposed of”.
The SIT invoked section 302 (murder) of the Ranbir Penal Code against the officer in its report.
“After offence of abduction under section 364 RPC was established against the accused, our efforts to trace the abducted person did not materialize as there was no clue of the youth (Manzoor),” reads the SIT report.
The case however took a new turn when Malhotra, now a brigadier in the army, went to the Supreme Court against the J&K High Court direction which had asked the police to arrest him.
The apex court stayed his arrest but asked him to cooperate with the SIT.
“During custodial questioning, he did not admit the custody of the victim nor did he make disclosures which could lead to victim’s recovery, which clearly indicates that the accused could have disposed of the body, so offence under 201 RPC is invoked,” the status report said.
The case was listed before the registry of the Supreme Court. Counsel for the victim’s family, Shadan Farasat said the state government – the respondent in the case – has filed its response seeking custody of the brigadier for “proper investigation”.
And After 11 months the supreme court will be hearing the case on 3 October.