Pathribal case: Murder charge on 5 army officers

The CBI today formally charged five army officers in the Pathribal fake encounter case. The chargesheet was filed in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court here.

The CBI today formally charged five army officers in the Pathribal fake encounter case. The chargesheet was filed in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court here.

The chargesheeted officers were identified as Brigadier Ajay Saxena of 6 Independent Armoured Brigade, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh of Punjab Regimental Centre, Ramgarh, Major Sourabh Sharma of 202 Mountain Brigade, Major Amit Saxena of 505 ASC Bn, and Subedar Idrees Khan of Junior Leaders Academy, Bareilly.

The army officers are being tried for abduction, murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and the destruction of evidence under IPC sections 307, 302, 364, 201, 120-B and sections 7 and 25 of the Arms Act.

On March 24, 2000, five Kashmiri villagers were picked up and killed at Pathribal in Anantnag district, allegedly because they were involved in the the Chittisinghpora massacre of March 20, in which 35 Sikhs had been killed by militants. The Army and the J-K Police claimed the five men were foreign militants. When local residents protested they were men from nearby villages, they were fired upon near Brakpora. Ten protestors were killed.