Pathribal fake killing: Army to finally try its men

After digging in its heels for 12 years, the Indian army has decided to try its officers and men in a military court/court marital in the infamous Pathribal fake encounter case of 2000.

The army has quietly moved an application in the court of chief judicial magistrate Srinagar expressing willingness to try the accused soldiers in military court. This follows the Supreme Court order on May 1 giving the army eight weeks time to decide whether to try the accused in military court or civil court.

Five army men — Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan — were charge-sheeted by the CBI a few years ago for killing five civilians after branding them militants.

After going through the plea, chief judicial magistrate Rajeev Gupta passed an order on Wednesday allowing the army to proceed against the accused in military court. “In view of the options having being exercised by competent military authority for trial by army court, criminal court lacks jurisdiction to try the case initiated on the basis of FIR registered on February 14, 2003,” he said

Gupta directed that the charge sheet filed along with its accompanying documents be transferred to the competent military authority “through duly authorized officer being Colonel Arun Awasthy unit 7 Rashtriya Riffles who is present in the court”.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah told DNA that they want justice in a transparent manner. “We want justice to be done in a transparent manner even if it is by military court martial. The proceedings and results must be shared with the public at large so that we know justice is done. As it is they have delayed far too long. But even know if they are willing to make sure the proceedings go ahead and guilty are brought to book and punished,” Omar said.

The incident dates back to 2000 when security forces branded five innocent men as militants and killed them in Pathribal village. The bodies were charred beyond recognition, before burying them.

The J&K government ordered exhumation of the bodies and their DNA samples were sent to forensic laboratories in Hyderabad where it was found that the samples were fudged. The case was handed over to the CBI which then charge sheeted the army officers. But none of them was punished.