The courts in the year 2007 were abuzz with cases of fake encounters, sex scandal and many other cases related to human rights abuse. The first major event was the charge sheet presented against senior police officials found involved in the infamous fake encounter case of Abdul Rahman Padder and others.
These disclosures sent shock waves throughout the Valley with the relatives of victims demanding stringent action against the erring police officials.
Another expose which brought to surface the society has underwent was the sex scandal in which some ministers along with top bureaucrats including Raman Matoo, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Nisar Khanday. They were, however, enlarged on bail.
In February, startling revelations came to light when some top police officials were found involved in the fake encounter cases. Later on charge sheet was presented against these people and the case is still under trial in the court of law.
The State government was forced to take action against the police officials when people came out on streets protesting against this grave human rights violation. The Padder case forced the police to do some digging in remote graveyards of the Valley. Some more fake encounters came to the fore.
Once the case was filed in the court, Senior Superintendent of police (SSP) Hans Raj Parihar, Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) Bahadur Ram and three other police officers were suspended.
Sabina sex scandal again came to limelight this year with the Chandigarh court granting bail to the kingpin Sabina and other main accused including ministers, MLAs, politicians and police officers. The case had been shifted to Chandigarh on the directions of the Supreme Court of India. The apex court had entrusted the probe to the CBI which had already filed the charge sheet in the court of its special judge.
The two-member division bench of the Jammu Kashmir High Court in a major development announced judgment in the case, directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to place all evidence available with it regarding top four politicians including a senior Cabinet Minister, two legislators, four IPS officers and former chairman of J&K Bank, before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar.
Justice Kirmani’s order
In his judgment, Justice Kirmani directed the CBI to place on record the evidence available regarding the transport minister Hakeem Muhammad Yasin, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Ghulam Hassan Khan, MLA Yogesh Sane, Senior Superintendents of Police Ashkoor Wani and Sheikh Mehmood, DIG Niyaz Mehmood, Nisar Ahmad Sheikh, Manzoor Naik, Amit Amla and Pritpal Singh before the CJM within six weeks.
The CJM, the court said, shall examine the report for taking cognizance or pass orders appropriate in law. Justice Kirmani ordered the CBI to conduct "further, speedy and focused investigation in cases of former chairman Jammu and Kashmir Bank M Y Khan, former Vigilance Organisation Commissioner Raj Tickoo, and Zahoor Ahmad Malik."
Justice Kirmani directed the CBI to conduct fresh investigation in case of all those people named by Sabina , the kingpin of the sex scandal, or any of the girls mentioned in various such cases.
Recently, similar incident came to limelight when on December 10 a girl introducing herself as Aaliya resident of Bilal Colony, Soura, and another girl, Soney approached the petitioner in district court premises. He had said that Aaliya narrated a woeful tale before him and said how Sahiba alias Gypsy forced her to take narcotic drugs and also subjected her to physical and mental torture.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar directed the police to formally arrest Sahiba alias Gypsy in the case of alleged murder of Aaliya. The Judge also directed that the case be supervised by Superintendent of Police (SP) Hazratbal instead of Station House Officer (SHO) Soura.
On Dec 27, police presented the status report of the case and submitted the case diaries. The judge observed that some progress had been made in the case but wanted the police to pull up the socks and formally arrest Sahiba the kingpin of the case.
When the case came up for hearing the police presented the case diaries and also presented the status report. The CJM went through the finer details of the status report and ordered arrest of the main accused.
The judge directed SP Hazratbal to supervise investigation. Muhammad Ashraf Bhat and Bashir Sidiq counsels appearing for Parvez Maqbool Shah, General Secretary, Forum against Social Evils (FASE) sought arrest of Sahiba under Section 302 of RPC.
"Aaliya had been drugged by Sahiba and after this she was murdered as well. This is a case of murder and therefore Section 302 should be invoked against Sahiba. It is important that the post mortem be carried out so that the exact nature of the case is detected and the things become crystal clear," said the counsels.
Quoting the 32 Evidence Act, the counsels appearing for the petitioner said that the statement of Aaliya should be considered as dying declaration. They said that stern action is warranted against Sahiba since Aaliya was in her confinement for 25 days and she was "murdered" on December 11 when she was supposed to get her statement recorded.
The petitioner’s counsels requested the court to take note of the role of a lady who is allegedly running a brothel at Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi.