The High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition, seeking aprobe into two alleged fake encounters at ChakDragmullaKupwara and SaraiBalaSrinagar in 2016.
“We are of the considered view that this is not a case wherethis Court would need to take any action in exercise of its inherent powers,for, the State and its functionaries have already taken the required stepsenvisaged by law,” a division bench of Justices Ali Mohammad Magrey and SanjeevKumar said and dismissed the petition.
The petition in Public Interest was filed by Kashmir HighCourt Bar Association, seeking probe to be monitored by senior officer into thealleged fake encounters at ChakDragmullaKupwara on May 21, 2016 and atSaraiBala Srinagar on May 23, 2016.
The lawyers body had referred to various newspaper reportsand said five militants were killed and three army men injured in a nine-hourlong encounter in ChakDragmullaKupwara with government forces blowing up thehouse where they claimed the militants were hiding.
As per the petition, the local residents had delayed theburial of the militants and kept the bodies at a seminary for the night,contesting the government forces claim that the five militants were killed in agunfight and, instead, averred that the encounter was a fake and staged one.
Regarding the killing of two youth at SaraiBala, thelandlady in whose house the duo was residing on rent, had contested the claimof the police by stating that “they were not militants but students who couldspeak in Kashmiri and only carried books and clothes with them.”
The police authorities as well as the Union of India filedtheir respective objections to the petition, maintaining that the “encounterswere genuine”, leading to the killing of seven militants.
While dismissing the petition, the bench observed that thatthere was no reason for it to suspect that the police would not do what wasrequired to be done by it.
“Even if, for the sake of argument, a probe is ordered, anyreport that may ultimately be made by such authority would not be more than arecommendation. And such authority, for formulation of such recommendation,would again be dependent upon the very same police agency,” the court said.