Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court (SC) has stayed proceedings in the Kunan Poshpora alleged mass rape case following a petition filed by the J&K government, the state high court (HC) was told Monday. As the case came up for hearing before the HC, J&K’s additional advocate General Riyaz Khan told the division bench that all proceedings had been stayed by the SC in an ex parte order.
“I received a call from the apex court today and was informed that the case has been stayed. I communicated the same to the division bench,” Khan later told The Indian Express. “I was directed by the bench to produce the order copy in the next hearing.”
The J&K government approached the SC despite assuring the HC that it would comply with its order to compensate the victims.
The government had told HC it was “not averse to compensating the victims”. However, in a surprise move, the state government then approached the SC against the HC directive, which prompted the stay on the proceedings.
The HC directive to compensate the victims had come after they approached the court asking it to monitor the probe. The victims claimed the state government failed to comply with the three-month time frame given by the district court to finish the probe.
The case dates back to 1991, when soldiers of 4 Rajputana rifles cordoned off Kunan and Poshpora villages of Kupwara. The soldiers then assembled men at one place and allegedly raped the women.
Though the police had closed the case, the State Human Rights Commission in 2011 asked the state government to reopen the case.
Khurram Parvez, coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, which is fighting the case, said this puts a question mark on the the pro-people stance of the present state government.
