Srinagar, Oct 27: High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against 13 forest officials in trial Court Bandipora on the grounds that there was no evidence in support of the complainant. The court, however maintained that there was no bar for reinvestigation of the case.
 “Although the Sessions Judge has noted in his order the parameters which a court is required to consider while considering the case of charge/ discharge of the accused, he has erred in not referring to the findings in the Final Police report,” the Court observed.
 “The findings were supported by the eyewitnesses and indicated that the deceased had received the injuries while running away from the place of work when he slipped and fell down receiving injuries and later died in the hospital,” the Court said. .
 “The criminal proceedings against the accused are, accordingly, quashed, however, there is no bar for reinvestigation of the case if it was found by the concerned authorities that police had not investigated the case properly,” the court said.
 Major R K Rohaker, Officer Commanding 56 Road Construction Company (GREF) had filed a compliant against the Forest officials with Police Station Bandipora on December 4, 2008.
 “Work at the Stone crusher of GREF was going on when a light vehicle and a platform Truck of Forest Department reached there and the forest officials including range officers, foresters and forest guards snatched tools from the labourers,” the complaint stated.
 “Range officers Abdul Rashid Lone and Abdul Rahim Dar kicked a labourer Manzoor Ahmad Ganie and Wali Muhammad. A Forester thrashed him mercilessly. Ganie, later had died in the hospital,” the complaint added.
 After completing investigations into the matter, police filed a charge sheet in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Bandipora. The investigating officer had stated in the charge sheet that there was no evidence justifying the involvement of the accused for commission of offence punishable under section 302 of RPC. The case was committed to Sessions Judge Bandipora for trial.
 “While examining final police report and the documents submitted with it, the sessions court was required to examine whether there was any ground for presuming that the accused had committed an offence which was triable by the sessions court or an offence which required trial by magistrate or there was no sufficient ground for proceedings against the accused,” the Court stated.
 The petitioners were represented by Shazia Tabasum.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:00 IST