Srinagar, July 28 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday said it has booked six officials of the Jammu and Kashmir Police for alleged brutal and inhuman custodial torture of a police constable two years ago.

A CBI statement said: “In its FIR registered on the orders of the Supreme Court, the central agency has named Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy SP) Aijaz Ahmad Naiko and five others, who were then posted at the Joint Interrogation Centre, Kupwara.

Apart from Deputy SP, Naiko, Sub-Inspector Riyaz Ahmad and four other J&K Policemen, Jahangir Ahmad, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Mohammed Younis and Shakir Ahmad have been named in the FIR for allegedly inflicting brutal and inhuman custodial torture over six days on constable, Khursheed Ahmad Chohan.

The victim, who was posted in Baramulla, was summoned through a signal communication on February 17, 2023, to report before SSP, Kupwara ostensibly for investigation in connection with a narcotics case.

On arrival, he was handed over to the Joint Interrogation Centre, where Naiko, Riyaz Ahmad and others tortured Khursheed for six days with iron rods and wooden sticks, besides inflicting heavy electric shocks on him, the wife has alleged in her complaint, now part of the FIR.

“Finally on February 26, 2023, the private parts of Khursheed were cut off, besides iron rods inserted in his private part continuously for six days. Khursheed was subjected to severe torture and red pepper were inserted in his rectum and also given electric shocks,” the complainant said.

The CBI FIR registered on the basis of the complaint filed by Khursheed’s wife alleged that the then SSP, Kupwara on whose requisition the victim was sent from Baramulla to Kupwara for probe in a narcotics case, remained mute spectator.

The agency in its FIR has not named the SSP as an accused. Khursheed had approached the Supreme Court with a chilling petition describing his ordeal after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court rejected the plea seeking a CBI probe.

Handing over the case to the CBI, the apex court noted that the high court “grossly erred in failing to exercise its constitutional obligation of protecting the fundamental rights of a citizen, his dignity and right to life”.

“It failed to consider the gravity of offences committed as well as the influence that could be exerted by accused persons being police officials,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said.

The apex court also ordered the payment of Rs 50 lakh in compensation to Khursheed, which shall be recoverable from the officer(s) concerned, against whom a departmental proceeding shall be initiated upon the conclusion of the investigation by the CBI.

The Supreme Court outrightly rejected the claims of the J&K UT that the injuries were the result of a suicide attempt by the victim.

“It is admitted that between 20th February and 26th February, 2023, the appellant sustained numerous injuries, including castration of his genital regions and was admitted to SKIMS Hospital at 2:48 pm on 26th February, 2023.

“It is also undisputed that the dismembered genitalia were brought to the hospital in a separate plastic bag by a sub-inspector, a fact that shocks our conscience,” the apex court had observed.

The police had maintained that Khursheed tried to take his own life during the investigation and that his wounds were self-inflicted.

In a scathing judgment, the Supreme Court noted that the “unprecedented gravity” of this case involving “brutal and inhuman custodial torture”, characterised by the “complete mutilation” of the appellant’s genitalia, represents one of the “most barbaric instances of police atrocity which the State is trying to defend and cover up with all-pervasive power”.

“The medical evidence conclusively establishes that such injuries are impossible to be self-inflicted. The respondent’s (Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir) theory of suicide attempt crumbles under scrutiny when examined against the timeline and the medical evidence,” the Supreme Court said.

“This temporal anomaly exposes the fabricated nature of the respondent’s case and conclusively establishes illegal detention of the appellant from February 20, 2023, to February 26, 2023,” the court noted.

The Supreme Court said the medical evidence decisively rules out the theory of the harm being self-inflicted and demolishes the suicide theory.

“The complete surgical removal of both testicles, the extensive injuries to the appellant’s palms and soles, consistent with custodial torture techniques such as falanga, the presence of multiple vegetative particles in the rectum, and bruising on the buttocks extending to the thighs — all point to a pattern of sustained and systematic torture.

”These injuries are medically impossible to be self-inflicted particularly in the absence of fatal hemorrhage or loss of consciousness, as would have occurred had the mutilation been self-administered”, the apex court said.

–IANS

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