Makhan Din’s custodial torture
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 4: Sub-Judge (Special Mobile Magistrate), Kathua Amandeep Kour today reluctantly extended a day’s time to the SHO Police Station Billawar to submit Action Taken Report (ATR) in two complaints seeking registration of FIR in the custodial torture of Makhan Din, son of Mohd Mureed of Billawar.
The two complaints— one filed by family of deceased Makhan Din and another filed by two Advocates namely Mohd Anwar Chowdhary and Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed have sought appropriate directions under Section 175(3) BNSS, 2023 to the SSP Kathua and SHO Police Station Billawar to register FIR against the erring police officials responsible for inflicting custodial torture upon Makhan Din.
When these two complaints came up for hearing before Sub-Judge (Special Mobile Magistrate), Kathua Amandeep Kour, Assistant Public Prosecutor(APP) Ankush Mahajan appeared along with SHO Police Station Billawar and filed an application seeking extension in submission of Action Taken Report (ATR) pursuant to order dated February 28th, 2025 and submitted that on February 25th, 2025 a complaint duly forwarded by SDPO Billawar and endorsed by SSP Kathua was received in P/S Billawar and subsequently a letter for seeking the permission for conducting the preliminary enquiry in terms of Section 173(3) BNSS was sought from the SDPO Office, whereby vide letter No.Rdr./Misc/2025/814-15/SDPO dated February 27th, 2025, SDPO Billawar permitted the SHO Billawar to conduct the preliminary enquiry in this matter.
In the application, it was further divulged that the enquiry into the matter is pending and has not been concluded yet as SHO Billawar remained busy in law and order/search operations and for this reason the Action Taken Report (ATR) could not be filed within the time frame fixed by the court. The SHO sought extension of 10 days for complying the court order.
At this stage, Advocate Appu Singh Salathia appearing for the complainants submitted that it is unfortunate that the directions of the court for filing ATR have not been taken seriously by the SHO P/S Billawar and vehemently insisted that both the complaints be allowed today itself in view of the failure of the Police Agency to file ATR in the matter as almost a month has completed but FIR till date has not been registered.
At this stage, Sub-Judge (Special Mobile Magistrate) Kathua Amandeep Kour, in the open court, put a specific query to the APP Ankush Mahajan and SHO Billawar as to whether FIR in the matter has been registered or not and to this query, the APP submitted that till date FIR has not been registered. Upon this, the court directed the APP to produce the case diaries and deferred the proceedings for the second half.
During second half, heated arguments took place from both the sides and the prosecution brought the record of inquest proceedings instead of the record pertaining to the applications filed by the complainants seeking registration of FIR in the matter.
After considering the heated arguments from both the sides, the Sub-Judge (Special Mobile Magistrate) Kathua reluctantly granted a day’s time to the APP/SHO Police Station, Billawar to file ATR as per previous order dated February 28th, 2025 and looking into the urgency involved in the matter posted the case on March 6.
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