Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 7: High Court has sought response from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Government of J&K with regard to the killing of a Sarpanch in June 2020 by unknown gunmen.
The petitioner who has sought CBI or NIA probe into the killing of Sarpanch-Ajay Pandita submitted that the investigation into the matter by local agencies would not reach to the perpetrator and criminals as such for transparency and efficacy, the probe should be carried out by the CBI or NIA or by judicial inquiry by a retired High Court judge.
Court has also been apprised that a joint application has already been submitted to Ministry of Home Affairs for urgent CBI or NIA probe into the matter. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sindhu Sharma granted a month’s time to file response to the plea on behalf of MHA, CBI and NIA. Court on behalf of the Chief Secretary of J&K UT and Principal Secretary Home asked the Additional Advocate General to file the response within same period.
Sarpanch Pandita was attacked and killed by unknown gunmen at his orchard on June 8 in district Anantnag and was rushed to nearby hospital where he was declared as brought dead. It is also added in the plea that Pandita had expressed his life threat in an interview and his killing indicated that a pre-planned and perpetrated criminal conspiracy is being carried against Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley again.
“That even after the above interview, no security was provided to deceased-Pandita and inactiveness of the local security and administration hints towards their apathy towards the Kashmiri Pandits as it is unable to stop such actions yet again after the 1990’s after the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, the police failed to identify any criminal and even not a single trial happened for the same”, read the plea.
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