DSP, five others booked for custodial torture of Muslim Constable in IIOJK
Top court stunned as victim’s genitalia brought to hospital in plastic bag
Srinagar: Crime Investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, has booked six officials of the Indian Police following allegations of inflicting “brutal and inhuman custodial torture” on a Muslim police constable in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, in its FIR registered on the orders of the Indian Supreme Court, the CBI has named Deputy Superintendent of Police Aijaz Ahmad Naiko and five others, who were then posted at the Joint Interrogation Centre, Kupwara, officials said.
Apart from DSP Naiko and Sub-Inspector Riyaz Ahmad, four other [police officials 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 Khursheed was tortured 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 complaint said.
The CBI FIR registered on the basis of the complaint filed by Khursheed’s wife, who was running from pillar to post seeking a probe into the atrocities against her husband, alleged that the then SSP, Kupwara on whose requisition the victim was sent from Baramulla to Kupwara for probe in a narcotics case, remained “a mute spectator”.
Surprisingly, the agency in its FIR has not named the SSP as an accused, which analysts believe would otherwise open a Pandora’s box on how the entire Indian police force is operating like a gang in the occupied territory against innocent civilians.
Khursheed had approached the Indian Supreme Court with a chilling petition describing his ordeal after the IIOJK 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 offenses 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.
“It is admitted that between 20th February and 26th February, 2023, the appellant sustained numerous injuries, including castration of his genital regions. 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 court had observed.
In a scathing judgment, the top 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”.
Analysts further question: when a police constable himself is not safe from his fellow officers, what treatment an ordinary Kashmiri civilian may be receiving by the same police in the occupied territory.
