NEW DELHI: As Army claimed there was no evidence against its five personnel in alleged fake encounter at Pathribal, CBI today said it would abide by the directions of the Supreme Court in the matter.
CBI sources said since the apex court was seized of the matter it would wait for a fresh set of directions as the agency had completed investigation into the case and filed a charge sheet against five Army personnel including the then Brigadier Ajay Saxena.
The sources said that the matter would be examined by the prosecution wing of the agency also to ascertain whether any action was needed to taken.
The Supreme Court, while making it clear that sanction to prosecution of army personnel was needed as they operated under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, had asked army to conduct the inquiry or handover its officials to the CBI for prosecution.
CBI, which had taken over the case in 2003, had filed a charge sheet in 2006 before Chief Judicial Magistrate in Srinagar in which the agency had alleged that five personnel – Brig Saxena, Lt Col Brahendra Pratap Singh, Maj Saurabh Sharma, Maj Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan – were involved in the fake encounter.
The agency had alleged that the five Army personnel were involved in gunning down five villagers and later dubbing them as the foreign militants before media. The army personnel also claimed that these persons were responsible for killing of 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora on March 21, 2000 when the then US President Bill Clinton was on a visit to India.
The CBI in its charge sheet had alleged that the army officials of Seven Rashtriya Rifles had staged a fake encounter and killed five innocent civilians whom they said were terrorists involved in an attack on Sikhs at Chittisinghpora in south Kashmir.
The CBI alleged that the killing of innocents was a result of “tremendous psychological pressure” on the Army unit to show results after the killing of Sikhs.
While arguing in the Supreme Court, CBI counsel Ashok Bhan had said it was a case of “cold-blooded murder and the accused officials deserve to be meted out exemplary punishment.”
CBI had contended that no prior sanction was required for prosecuting the army personnel and the need to ensure “public confidence in the rule of law and dispensation of justice” warranted their prosecution
“Our investigations have revealed it was a fake encounter and cold-blooded murders. If public confidence in the rule of law and dispensation of justice is to be sustained, the accused officers deserve to be meted out exemplary punishment,” Bhan had told the bench in 2012.–PTI
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