Srinagar, Nov 2: The Jammu and Kashmir government Tuesday said it would look into the case of the alleged torture of an under trial Kashmiri youth in the Kolkata Presidency Jail recently.
 “We will certainly look into the issue and seek a report in this regard. I haven’t yet seen the news reports with regard to this case. But once we examine them, we shall definitely inquire it,” said the Principal Secretary, Home Department, BR Sharma, when asked if the case was being investigated.
 This newspaper had Monday reported that an under trial Kashmiri youth has been allegedly tortured and stripped at the Kolkata Presidency Jail on October 15-16 after he objected to the “bad food” provided there.
 The family of Sheikh Farhat Mehmood, arrested in 2003 in connection with an abandoned ammunition truck, alleged that he had been tortured and kept naked in the jail throughout the night, when Durga Puja was being held there.
 The family has sought help from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association with regard to its demand of shifting Farhat to a Srinagar jail. “We have approached the HCBA and are awaiting a response from them,” said Farhat’s brother, Sheikh Wajahat.
 Legal experts believe that such acts were contrary to the law of the land. “It is contrary to the law and violation of all the Supreme Court directions with regard to such cases. It means the violation of human rights and the rights of prisoners,” said noted counsel Zaffar Ahmad Shah.
 “It shocks the conscience of the people. This action by the state is not supported by the law, ethics and morality.”
 Shah said the family can move High Court to seek shifting of the boy from that prison. “But if they want the case to be shifted from Kolkata to Srinagar, that can be done by the Supreme Court alone,” he said.
 The case was first reported by Kolkata edition of the Hindustan Times. Farhat has been lodged in the Presidency Jail since July 2005. The family lives at Iqbal Abad at Bemina here.
 The newspaper reported that Farhat had protested against the bad food in prison and demanded the basic rights in accordance with the jail rules. “Following this, Farhat observed two days hunger strike in jail. Senior officers in the jail department were kept in dark about the episode,” it said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 2 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
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