STATE OF J&K Vs. NAZIR AHMED AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the State is directed against the judgment dated 18.08.2006 delivered by the Sessions Judge, Udhampur in file No.15/Sessions whereby all the respondents were acquitted of the offences punishable under Sections 302/120- B/148-B/436 and 109 RPC of which they were charged. The said Sessions' case arose out of FIR No.74/2003 registered at Police Station, Mahore, District Reasi. Initially, the said FIR No.74/2003 was registered under Sections 302/132/158/120-B/121/123 RPC and 7/25 & 6/27 of the Arms Act, 1959.

(2.) The case pertains to the killing of one Mohd Yousaf, who was a teacher in the Education Department. The case, as initially registered in the said FIR, was that in the intervening night of 3rd and 4th of August, 2003, some Pak trained militants trespassed into the house of one Mohd Latief in village Thooru and shot the said Mohd Yousaf, who died as a result of the same. The deceased had come to the village to attend the marriage of his brother-in-law. It was further the case, as registered in the said FIR, that the alleged militants while returning, after committing the crime, set fire to the house of one Mir Hussain S/o Mehandia R/o Thooru. Thereafter, investigation ensued by the Investigating Officer going to the spot and preparing the site plan etc. The Investigating Officer is said to have found one live cartridge, one empty and one more cartridge and a blood stained gunny bag at the spot, which were allegedly seized by him. The ashes from the burnt house of Mir Hussain were also seized. So was the dead body. After autopsy, it was handed over to the legal heirs of the deceased for performing the last rites. The blood stained clothes of the deceased were also sealed on the spot and again resealed for the purpose of chemical examination by the Forensic Science Laboratory.

(3.) The subsequent investigation allegedly revealed that the deceased Mohd Yousaf was not in the hit list of the militants and as such, he was perhaps murdered in a pre-planned and selective manner. On the basis of suspicion, the legal heirs of the deceased moved an application before the SSP Udhampur for conducting an autopsy on the dead body of the deceased once again. The application was forwarded to the District Magistrate, Udhampur, who gave permission for exhuming the dead body of the deceased Mohd Yousaf and for conducting the post mortem examination thereupon by the Board of Doctors. The dead body was exhumed from the graveyard and the post mortem examination was conducted by the Board of Doctors. It appears that the Board opined that the deceased Mohd Yousaf died probably due to a head injury. The FSL report also revealed that the decomposed body material did not indicate traces of Lead, Nitrate and Copper radicals to infer any firing.