BJP MLA who led murder accused to minister’s house was named in FIR

Sharma was not an MLA then, but a local BJP leader.

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The FIR, registered under various sections of Arms Act, murder, arson and looting, mentions him as Sunil Kumar, son of Bansi Lal, of Hatta.

Sharma made his debut in the Assembly as a BJP candidate in 2014. He was later inducted as a minister of state in the PDP-BJP government headed by late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Sharma had taken a delegation of people from Paddar on Friday to Jitendra Singh’s house to press their demand to grant them Scheduled Tribe status. The delegation included a local BJP leader named Hari Krishan, alias Kasooru, who is wanted by police in a case of murder during the 2013 clashes in Kishtwar. Declared an absconder by court, Kasooru had posed for a photograph with Singh and Sharma.

The Indian Express found MLA Sharma’s cellphone switched off; he could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

According to police records, two locals — Mohammad Maqbool Kelam, 36, and Gufram, 11 — were killed and 30 others injured, during violence in Kishtwar town in 2008 in a fallout of the Amarnath land row.