Srinagar, Jan 1: A single bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Friday declined to hear the petition challenging re-examination of two witnesses in the Shopian double rape and murder case by the Central Bureau of Investigation citing as reason the proceedings before its division bench.
 Justice Muhammad Yaqoub Mir said it was not proper for him to hear the petition filed by the District Bar Association, Shopian, as the proceedings of the Shopian case were going on before the division bench.
 The High Court Bar Association president and senior lawyer, Main Abdul Qayoom, and former additional advocate general, Syed Riyaz Hussain, represented the petitioners.
 Counsels urged the Court that the case may be referred to the division bench which was seized of the matter in a Public Interest Litigation petition. The Court observed that this issue would be considered by the Vacation Judge and directed the case to be listed before him.
 According to the calendar issued by the High Court, the next week is a “no work” week. Hence, the case is expected to be listed before the Vacation Judge for hearing after 11th of this month, Counsel Syed Riyaz Hussain said.
 The petition challenging the re-examination of witnesses - Ghulam Mohiuddin and Abdul Rashid Pampori – which had been filed on December 9 was earlier adjourned without any hearing. The respondents are: Union Home Secretary, CBI Director and SP in- charge case FIR No CBI RC 8 (S) / 2009-SCU.I/CBI, and State of J&K.
 The petition seeks quashing of October 26 order of the Sessions Court, Shopian, which allowed the re-examination of two key witnesses. It says, “The perusal of the statements  of the two witnesses, namely Ghulam Mohiuddin and Abdul Rashid Pampori  would indicate that  these witnesses  have been made to state that the statement  made by them earlier on June 18, 2009 were  false  and made  at the behest of lawyers of the Shopian. The witnesses have been made to completely retract from the earlier statements. Some of the advocates of the Bar Association, Shopian, have been named by the witnesses in the re-recorded statements.”
 While seeking the quashing of October 26 order of the Sessions Court and the statements of the two witnesses made on October 27, the petitioners have prayed for a “writ of mandamus directing the respondents not to act upon the statements of the above mentioned individuals recorded on October 27, 2009.”
 Earlier on October 26, the CBI, probing the Shopian case, had approached the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shopian, with an application, seeking the re-examination of the two witnesses under section 164-A of CrPC, who had earlier been examined by the same court on June 18, 2009.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
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