AFT suspend Army Captain’s life imprisonment in Amishpora ‘staged’ encounter ; 3 Rajouri youths were killed in the ‘staged,’encounter in July 2020 in Shopian distt.

GNS ONLINE NEWS PORTAL

SHYAM SOOD

Looking for justice for killing of our innocent children. AFT order disappointing: Mohd Yusuf, father of Abrar

RAJOURI NOVEMBER 13:–According to media reports the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in New Delhi on Monday suspended the life sentence recommended by the Army Court to Captain Bhupinder of Army’s 62 RR who was found guilty of killing three youths (relatives) from the Dharsakri village of Rajouri district in a ‘staged’ Amishpora encounter in Shopian district in Kashmir.
As the news of the suspension of life sentence reached to family members of the deceased youths, they expressed their resentment over the AFT order.
Mohd Yusuf (55), father of one of the deceased Abrar Ahmed (17) said: “We have been demanding death sentence for Captain who is responsible for the killings of our three innocent children in a fake encounter.Now We have faith in Allha’s justice”.
“For the last about four years we have faced a lot of problems and spent huge money (even govt’s financial assistance i.e. Rs 10 lakh each) to fight in the civil as well as Army court. In the month of September govt jobs were provided to one member of each family but to date no salary has been disbursed to them” added Mohd Yusuf.
In March 2022 the Army Court recommended to higher authorities life imprisonment for Captain in connection with the killing of three youths from Rajouri district in a ‘staged encounter’ at Amishpora village in Shopian district in South Kashmir on the intervening night of July 17 & 18 in 2020.
Earlier Mohd Yusuf had welcomed the Army Court’s recommendation for life imprisonment to Captain Bhupinder of Army’s 62 RR.
The three youths lebelled as terrorists and were killed in the staged encounter include Mohammed Ibrar, Imtiyaz Ahmed, and Abrar Ahmed.
These youths had gone to Kashmir (Shopian district) to work as labourer.
Following resentment over the killings on the social media platform, the Army’s Court of Inquiry was constituted and it found prima facie evidence of ‘exceeded powers vested under the AFSPA.
Following the Army Court’s recommendation for life imprisonment, the Captain had approached the Principal Bench of the AFT through his lawyer S S Pandey against the conviction.
The Two-member AFT headed by Justice Rajindra Menon found that evidence produced against the applicant (captain) is not convincing enough to hold him guilty of the charges levelled against him.
“The applicant has already been in custody for a period of about three years and therefore, it is a fit case where, prima facie, evidence available on record suggests that bail can be granted to the applicant by suspending the sentence,” AFT stated.
“We allow the application for suspension of sentence for life imprisonment and direct that the applicant shall be released on bail,” the Principal Bench said.
A charge sheet against the Captain and two other persons is also filed in the civil court by a special investigation team of J&K police constituted following an allegation of a fake encounter.
The identity of the three youths was established through DNA tests followed by missing reports of three youths lodged in a police station in Rajouri district.