Srinagar, Dec 13: The High Court Monday in Shopian double rape and murder case listed the petition seeking quashment of proceedings against the two accused lawyers after court vacations.
Since, counsel for the petitioners did not turn up, the court of Justice J P Singh said, “The matter be listed after court vacations are over.”
The two accused lawyers advocate Muhammad Altaf Mohand and Sheikh Mubarak filed a petition seeking quashment of the proceedings under section 561 (A) before the trial court on the grounds that there was no material evidence available with the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) against them.
Counsel for CBI, who was present in the court sought the perusal of relevant record called by the High Court from the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar.
On May, 14 the High Court had issued notice to the CBI in this petition.
The two lawyers in their petition have pleaded that CBI instead of concentrating on how the two ladies-Asiya and Neelofar Jan, drowned in the stream in Shopian has only given the cause of death.
On December 10, 2009 the CBI presented chargesheet against 13 persons before the CJM, Srinagar. The chargesheet said that two women, Asiya Jan and her sister-in-law Neelofar who had gone missing on May 29, 2009 and then whose bodies were found on banks of Ramber Nalla in Shopian on May 30, 2009 have been neither raped nor murdered.
The CBI chargesheet has described the death of two women as “accidental drowning.”
The lawyers accused in the charge-sheet include Mushtaq Ahmad Gatoo, Sheikh Mubarak, Altaf Muhammad, Mohammad Yousuf Bhat and Abdul Majid Mir. The civilian include elder brother of Asiya (victim), Zahoor Ahmad Ahanger and Ali Muhammad Sheikh.
CBI, which took over the investigation from SIT on September 17, 2909 into the death of two Shopian women, completed its probe in December 2009.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 IST