Srinagar, Dec 15: High Court has issued notice to Union Defence Secretary, Shashi Kant Sharma and state Director General Police, Kuldeep Khoda, for not complying with its direction regarding the custodial death of a man who was allegedly arrested and subjected to disappearance by the forces in 1997.
 A single bench of the High Court issued the notice in a contempt petition filed by the mother of the victim wherein she had pleaded that the Union and State governments did not show any regard to the orders of the court and should be held accountable for committing contempt.
 Chief Justice, Ibrahim Kalifulla in March this year had directed the respondent Union government to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh within eight months by depositing it in JK Bank, High Court Branch Srinagar in a fixed deposit in the name of petitioner for a period of two years.
 In case the Union Government had failed to deposit the amount, it will incur an interest rate of 6 per cent annually till the it is finally paid.
 The court had however kept the option for the Defence secretary Union government that it could recover the compensation from state DGP and the state government.
 The court had asked the state government and DGP to proceed with the prosecution of the case in FIR 66 0f 2009 registered with police station expeditiously and file the final report within three weeks before the competent court.
 The court had held that all the respondents in the case are liable for the compensation to the petitioner for disappearance of her son, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, who was taken into custody by the forces on April 13, 1997 and whose body was not handed over to his family.
 The petitioner, Mst Azizi through her counsel, Mir Shafaqat Hussain had submitted before the court that her 20 year old son, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar of Tengpora Srinagar was forced to disappearance after he was arrested during mid night of April 13, 1997 by the forces at Boat Colony Srinagar.
 “The victim was beaten in the presence of his family members, interrogated in one of the rooms of the house while the other family members were locked in another room and later taken away by the security forces,” the counsel had pleaded before the Bench.
 The counsel had informed the court that when the family members went to the camp to look for Mushtaq, they were told by the commandant that they would release him soon, but he never turned up for his family.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST