Srinagar, May 19: The Court on Wednesday ‘dismissed as withdrawn’ the application of accused paramilitary BSF commandant R K Birdi and his subordinate Lakhvinder Kumar in the killing of Zahid Farooq in which they had sought directions to police for registering a counter FIR.
On March 30, the two accused moved an application before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar, Muhammad Ibrahim Wani, seeking directions to the police station Nishat for lodging FIR against the alleged stone pelting on the BSF patrol party at Brein on February 5.
On May 12, the CJM said it received an application from Central Jail Srinagar in which Birdi and Lakhvinder had stated that they were not interested in pursuing their application filed for lodging counter FIR and do not want to engage any counsel to the
application filed by BSF authorities under section 80 of BSF Act.
The two accused acknowledged the statements in the letter and sought its withdrawal. The CJM, however, asked them to record their statements in support of the withdrawal of the application. After recording the statements the court dismissed the application as withdrawn.
“Prayer is accordingly made that the application for lodging counter FIR and completing of investigation in case FIR No. 73/2009 be treated as withdrawn as not pressed. In support of the application both the accused recorded their statements and they want to withdraw the application,” the CJM said.
It may be recalled that on March 31, Birdi and Kumar in their application had accused police of abusing its powers of investigations. Substantiating their claim for registration of a counter FIR, the two accused BSF personnel had prayed that while on way to Nishat on February 5, they faced stone pelting which led to the firing incident causing death of Zahid.
Molvi Aijaz, senior lawyer and counsel for Birdi, had said that at the time of arrest, his client had given a written complaint to the SP (City East) for registering a counter FIR in the incident. “The office of the IG BSF has also made communications with the SIT as to why a counter FIR has not been registered. The BSF subsequently lodged an FIR but the same has neither been registered nor being investigated,” Aijaz had added.
Meanwhile, counsel for BSF, Gowhar Ahmad, today argued that the case be along with the custody of the two accused BSF personnel transferred to the General Security Force Court. Gowhar had moved an application for the same on April 7.
However, Special Public Prosecutor Abdul Aziz Teli has submitted that since the matter comes under the purview of civil offence, neither the accused nor their case documents can be shifted to the BSF Court. Both the accused were present in the court today. The next hearing will be on June 2.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 19 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 19 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 20 May 2010 00:00:00 IST