Agencies
NEW DELHI, February 8: : The father of Major Aditya on Thursday moved the Supreme Courtfor the quashing of an FIR lodged by the Jammu & Kashmir police in the firing incident in Shopian.
He said that the FIR – which booked Major Aditya and the 10 Garhwal Rifles for murder and attempt to murder – will hurt the morale of Army personnel in the discharge of their duty.
The Major’s father, in his petition, said that the authorities were aware that the Major “was not there,” but “in an arbitrary exercise of power, named my son as an accused.”
“Army personnel present there were doing lawful military duty peacefully and who, by violent actions of the mob, were forced to take lawful actions for protection of government property without any excessive use of force,” the petition says.
The petition highlights that “violent mobs in Kashmir area have frequently obstructed bonafide government duties and even resorted to lynching and killing of government officials.”
The Army, too, contends that Major Aditya of the 10 Garhwal Rifles was leading the “administrative convoy” and was some distance away from the site where the firing occurred at Ganwapora in late January.
The Army has maintained that its soldiers had only opened “controlled fire in self-defence” after issuing several warnings to the violent 200-people-strong mob pelting stones on its convoy at Shopian in south Kashmir. The conflict left three civilians dead and seven soldiers injured.
Aside from the FIR, the state government headed by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti also instituted a magisterial inquiry to look into the matter and submit its report within 20 days.
