Srinagar: Two months after a teenaged boy was
shot dead here sparking widespread protests, the Jammu and
Kashmir Police today charged BSF Commandant R K Birdhi and
constable Lakhvinder Kumar Singh with the murder.
In its chargesheet filed before the Chief Judicial
Magistrate, the police charged the duo under the Ranbir Penal
Code (RPC) Section 302 which deals with murder, official
sources said.
The two have also been charged under Section 120-B
(criminal conspiracy), Section 201 (destruction of evidence)
and Section 307 (attempt to murder).
The challan was presented before the CJM who read the
presentation and accepted it and said it will be taken up on
April 8 as judicial clerks, who were on strike, would have to
check the documents and annexures.
Zahid Farooq was killed on February 5 and police
investigations found the involvement of BSF personnel in the
crime. The police examined all the call records around the
area after the 16-year-old boy was shot dead and eyewitnesses
told the police that the vehicle of the security forces had an
insignia of "hangul" (red deer).
The mark is used on the vehicles of BSF and the
paramilitary force has a company headquarters nearby.
Police later asked BSF to provide the log details of the
vehicle movements in and out of the company headquarters
located near Nishat, the place where the incident took place.
After the probe into the case, BSF ordered a departmental
inquiry on the basis of evidence handed over by the police and
handed over constable Singh to police.
However, the constable spilled the beans and said he had
done so at the orders of Birdhi who had even loaded the gun
for him (the constable) prompting the police to conduct
further investigations.
The statement of two constables was also annexed with
the chargesheet which ran into several pages. The killing of
Zahid had led to protests which could be brought under control
only after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah ordered an inquiry and
even took up the matter at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
PTI
