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Srinagar, June 30, 2013 (PPI-OT): The High Court of occupied Kashmir has directed the investigating officer in Tufail Matoo killing case to remain present in the court along with case diary on the next date of hearing on July 2.The court of Justice Virender Singh passed the direction after advocate Mian Abdul Qayoom representing Tufail’s family argued that the trial court closed the case as untraced without looking properly into the final investigation report of the Special Investigating Team.
The family of Tufail Matoo challenged the trial court’s decision in the High Court on the grounds that the court was not legally competent to accept the closure report of the police, submitting the High Court was seized of the matter and the report filed by the respondents.
A 12th class student, Tufail was killed on June 11, 2010, after a teargas shell fired by the police hit him near Ghani Memorial Stadium in Srinagar. A Special Investigation Team headed by a Superintendent of police was constituted to investigate the case on the directions of High Court.
Meanwhile, a court in Srinagar has rejected the plea of the counsel of notorious government-sponsored gunman, Papa Kishtwari, to hold in-camera trial. The court also rejected the contention of his counsel to stop appearance before the court of Zahoor Ahmad, whose father, Ali Muhammad Mir, was abducted and killed by Kishtwari.
Zahoor Ahmad talking to newsmen said, “Papa Kishtwari was produced in the court of First Additional Judge. He threatened me of dire consequences once he comes out of jail,” he claimed.
“His (Kishtwari’s) counsel pleaded that in-camera trial should be held and I should be stopped to appear in the court. However, the court rejected his contention,” he added. He said that he submitted in the court that witnesses were reluctant to record their statements before the court as the weapons of Kishtwari had not been seized till date and his accomplices were roaming freely.
Police had started investigations into the murder of Ali Muhammad Mir in 2007, after his son, Zahoor filed a petition in the High Court complaining that police had not taken any action against the killer of his father since 1996.
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