IOK HC upholds court-martial against 4 troops in rape case

Srinagar, April 13, 2014 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the High Court has upheld court martial against four Indian troops who had raped two Kashmiri women in 1996. A division bench of Chief Justice, M M Kumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, upheld the punishment awarded by Summary General Court Martial (SGCM) against four personnel of 4-Rashtriya Rifles.

The court castigated the conduct of a senior gynaecologist for ‘falsely’ examining one of the victims. It observed that one fails to understand as to how Dr Masooda Jan Shahmiri, gynaecologist, stated that the hymen of the unmarried girl was intact. “We would like to place on record our anguish and pain about the manner the doctor has conducted herself,” the bench members stated in the order.

It is to mention here that a case was registered in a police station in Islamabad district against four RR personnel that on 19th March in 1996 they had raped a married woman and an unmarried girl at their home when no male family member was around.

Dr Shahmiri, who was posted in Islamabad District Hospital as a gynaecologist in 1996, after examining the two rape victims had stated that there was no evidence of sexual assault and the hymen of the 19-year-old unmarried girl was intact.

However Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Matoo, a gynaecologist, who was posted as Registrar at Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar, had examined the victims and in his report had stated that the hymen of the unmarried lady was not intact.

Following its proceedings against the troopers, the SGMC had sentenced Naik Rajvinder Singh, Lance Naik Onkar Singh Chib, Surrinder Kumar and Sanjay Singh to rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and dismissed them from the service.

Kumar and Chib challenged their sentence before a bench of High Court that set aside the order of SGCM acquitting Kumar and giving Chib benefit of doubt. The Indian government had filed appeal against the order and the case was heard by the two-member bench.

Meanwhile, the High Court has directed the authorities concerned to issue passport within four weeks to a man, Ghulam Ahmad Ganaie, not recommended by CID on the ground that his son had gone to Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 2000 and was still there.

A bench of the court passed the directive after Advocate Mir Shafaqat Hussain representing Ghulam Ahmad Ganai (58) of Wubzan Bijbehara pleaded that his client had applied for passport in 2011 but Regional Passport Officer Srinagar had informed him about the rejection of his application.

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