Nadimarg massacre case involving killing of 24 Kashmiri Hindu's by LeT terrorists reopened by J&K High Court
26 Aug 2022 16:15:13
High Court of J&K on Thursday ordered to reopen the case of Nadimarg massacre in which 24 Kashmiri Hindus were brutally murdered by Pakistani sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in Pulwama district of J&K on 23 March, 2003. The victims included 11 men, 11 women and two small boys of which one was 2 years old. Their bodies were mutilated, houses were looted and ornaments from the bodies of dead women were also snatched away by the terrorists. This case was closed a decade ago.
In the hearing related to the reopening of the Nadimarg massacre case, HC Judge Justice Sanjay Dhar said, "During the pendency of the trial of the case, the prosecution moved an application before the trial court seeking permission to examine material prosecution witnesses on commission, as according to the prosecution, these witnesses had migrated out of Kashmir valley and they were reluctant to depose before the trial court at Shopian in view of the threat perception."
The application was dismissed by the Principal Sessions Judge, Shopian, in 2011 and the said dismissal order was challenged by the prosecution by way of a Criminal Revision Petition before the high court. The high court then dismissed the revision petition on December 21, 2011, which the prosecution sought to recall through the current application.
For the foregoing reasons, the application of prosecution is allowed and the order dated 21.12.2011 passed by this court is recalled. The Registry is directed to post the revision petition for rehearing on 15.09.2022," Justice Dhar said.
The prosecution counsel argued before the court that the impugned order sought to be recalled was issued without hearing the prosecution or discussing the merits of the case, which he said is non-est in the eyes of the law as a criminal revision petition cannot be dismissed for non-prosecution.
It should be noted that the petitioner-state filed a petition seeking special leave to appeal against the judgement and order dated February 26,2014 passed by the high court.
The petition was filed before the high court to challenge the proceedings from the date of framing of charge by the trial court and a direction was sought for a fresh trial of the case or, in the alternative, to transfer the case to any court of competent jurisdiction at Jammu so that statements of all the migrated witnesses available at Jammu are recorded in the said case without any fear.