Shopian firing: Supreme Court to hear the plea of Army officer’s father on Monday
Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh had moved the top court on Thursday, claiming that the J&K Police’s FIR against his son is an ‘arbitrary exercise of power’.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear the plea of the father of an Army officer, who the Jammu and Kashmir Police had charged along with others in the Shopian firing incident, PTI reported.
The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it would take up the plea of Major Aditya Kumar’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh, on Monday. His lawyer, Aishwarya Bhati, claimed that the First Information Report the police had filed has no legal basis.
On January 27, soldiers from the 10th Garhwal Rifles unit had objected to a black flag with Islamic inscriptions perched across a lane in Ganowpara village in Shopian. Their demand to remove the flag, commonly associated with the Islamic State group, did not go down well with the villagers, who took it as an infringement on their religious beliefs. This triggered the clashes, with the protestors pelting the Army convoy with stones. Three men were killed after the Army opened fire.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police had filed a case against the Army unit and the Army in return reportedly filed a counter FIR and claimed that the protestors had provoked the soldiers of the 10th Garhwal Rifles unit “to the ultimate”.
Lt Col Singh said his son was not there at the time of the incident, but was named accused in an “arbitrary exercise of power”. In its submissions, the Army too has contended that Major Aditya Kumar was leading the convoy and was some distance away when the firing started.