HC constitutes full Bench to hear case

Amid renewed political focus on the sex abuse scandal in the state, Jammu & Kashmir High Court has constituted a full Bench to hear the case...

Amid renewed political focus on the sex abuse scandal in the state, Jammu & Kashmir High Court has constituted a full Bench to hear the case from Monday. The case has been referred to the Bench following a split judgment in October last by a Division Bench of Justice Hakeem Imtiaz Hussain and Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani. A three-judge Bench of Justices Nissar Ahmad Kakroo, Virander Singh and J P Singh, will now hear the case.

The HC decision follows the controversy triggered by Congress MP Madan Lal Sharma accusing Jammu & Kashmir Speaker Tara Chand and the former PCC chief Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed of being involved in the sex scandal.

Speaking at a rally in Akhnoor in Jammu, Sharma had said Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad intervened to save Tara Chand and Peerzada Sayeed from an imminent arrest in 2006. Sharma’s revelations put the Congress on the back foot at a time when the state is poised for the Assembly elections, to be held by October this year.

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The HC’s decision is likely to complicate matters further. In a significant decision on the case in October last, the High Court not only reprimanded the CBI for being lax in its investigations but also revealed the names of a Cabinet minister, two legislators, top bureaucrats, senior police officers and prominent businessmen against whom evidence was available, but no cognizance was taken.

Those identified included Transport Minister Hakeem Yaseen, MLAs Ghulam Hassan Khan and Yogesh Sawhnhey, Director General rank police officer Rajinder Tikoo, senior IPS officers Ashkoor Wani, Niyaz Mahmood and Shiekh Mahmood, former J-K Bank chairman Muhammad Yousuf Khan and owner of Broadway hotel Anil Amla. The court had reproached the CBI for failing to identify the “commissioner who allegedly had sex with the minor in an official hut at Cheshma Shahi even though all these aspects were integral to the logical conclusion of this case”.

The judgment triggered shock waves throughout the state. People’s Democratic Party promptly suspended its legislator Ghulam Hassan Khan. Now, further proceedings in the case are likely to be keenly watched by the Congress with four of its senior leaders under the scanner.