IOK police seek arrest of culprit Indian army’s Brigadier

Srinagar, January 24, 2016 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, Police have filed a petition seeking in the Indian Supreme Court seeking arrest of an Army Brigadier involved in disappearance of a Kashmiri chemist from Rawalpora of Srinagar in 2002. The development follows after Brigadier Kishore Malhotra moved the Supreme Court against the directions of territory’s High Court allowing Police’ Special Investigation Team to arrest the Brigadier and put him into custodial interrogation for concluding the investigation into the disappearance of the chemist, Manzoor Ahmad Dar.“It is respectfully submitted that interrogation of the said officer is necessary…,” reads the affidavit submitted by Police in Supreme Court.

Dar (then 35), working as a chemist, was picked up from his home at Rawalpora by Malhotra, then a major in Army’s 35-Rashtriya Rifles, during the intervening night of January 18-19 in 2002. Following protests, the police had filed an FIR under section 364 of RPC (abduction) against the Rashtriya Rifles. Subsequently, during the investigation, the name of Malhotra had surfaced as the culprit. The case, which took different twists during past 14 years, hogged the headlines again when on November 26 last year the SIT probing the disappearance concluded that Dar could have died in custody of Army’s 35 Rashtriya Rifles led by Major Kishore Malhotra after he was abducted from his residence and his body could have been disposed off.”

In its report, the SIT invoked section 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code (murder) against the officer. “After offence of abduction was established against the culprit, our efforts to trace the abducted person did not materialize as there was no clue of the youth (Manzoor),” reads the SIT report. The case however took new turn when Malhotra went to the Supreme Court against the High Court order. The Apex Court stayed his arrest but asked him to cooperate with the SIT.

A senior police official, associated with the investigation, told media that following the Supreme Court directions to Malhotra, he appeared before police but didn’t reveal anything new about the case. “He was here for four days in connection with police investigation. But nothing substantial came out during his questioning,” said the police official.

The official said given the seriousness of the case, the police have now sought his custody for carrying forward the investigation. On January 19, exactly 14 years after his disappearance, Dar’s daughter, Bilquees, brought an end to the long wait for her father’s return by organizing his funeral prayers in absentia outside her home. Two days later, Dar’s mother, Zeba Begum, who had been hoping that his son would return, passed away.

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Kashmir Media Service
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