Shopian firing: SC stays probe against Major Aditya Kumar till next hearing

The Supreme Court is hearing a petition filed by Major Aditya Kumar’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh, who sought the quashing of the FIR filed against his son. “The decision will be taken by the court. I cannot speak or comment on it,” Singh told reporters after the hearing.

Advocate Aishwarya Bhati, who filed the petition on behalf of Singh, told mediapersons, “I won’t say it is a big relief as the court has modified the interim order and said no investigation will take place on the basis of the FIR.”

While hearing the case last month, the court had also ordered that no coercive action should be initiated against Kumar. The Centre has supported the plea.

In his plea to the Supreme Court, Singh claimed that the firing was undertaken to control “a savage and violent mob engaged in terrorist activity” and that the FIR violated the fundamental rights of his son. The Army officer added that the petition was submitted “for protecting the morale of the soldiers of Indian Army, who are facing all odds in performance of their bonafide duties and laying their lives in the line of duty, to uphold the dignity of the Indian flag”.

The Jammu-Kashmir Police had lodged an FIR under Section 302 (murder charge) against the Army personnel and his unit for opening fire on a group of stone-pelting mob in Ganovpora village in Shopian. While two persons were killed on the spot, a third succumbed to his injuries later. The incident prompted Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to order a probe into the killings.

With PTI inputs

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