On the orders of the Supreme Court, a deputy superintendent of J&K Police is among eight cops arrested by the CBI for inflicting “brutal and inhuman custodial torture” on a fellow police constable two years ago, officials said.
The eight officers who were taken into custody on Wednesday night after detailed questioning will be interrogated further to ascertain the role of each accused in torturing Constable Khursheed Ahmad Chohan for six days on suspicion of helping drug peddlers.
In its FIR registered on the orders of the Supreme Court, the CBI has booked DSP Aijaz Ahmad Naiko and five others, who were then posted at the Joint Interrogation Centre, Kupwara, officials said.
During the investigation, the CBI found the role of two more police personnel for aiding the alleged inhuman treatment meted out to Chohan and being uncooperative in the probe, they said.
Apart from DSP Naiko, Sub-Inspector Riyaz Ahmad and six others have been arrested in the case for alleged criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder, among others, they said.
The victim, who was posted in Baramulla, was summoned through a signal communication on 17 February 2023, to report before the Kupwara SSP ostensibly for investigation in connection with a narcotics case.
On arrival, he was handed over to the Joint Interrogation Centre, where Naiko, Riyaz Ahmad and others allegedly tortured Khursheed for six days with iron rods and wooden sticks, besides inflicting heavy electric shocks on him and mutilation of his genitals, his wife has alleged in her complaint, which is now a part of the FIR.
“On February 26, 2023, the private parts of Khursheed were allegedly cut off, besides iron rods inserted in his private part continuously for six days. Khursheed was subjected to severe torture and red pepper was inserted in his rectum and also given electric shocks,” the complaint said.
“He was admitted to SKIMS Hospital in Srinagar at 2.48 pm on 26 February 2023, where his dismembered genitalia were brought to the hospital in a separate plastic bag by a sub-inspector, a fact that shocks our conscience,” the Supreme Court had observed while handing over the case to the CBI.
The role of a senior superintendent of police during his torture is also being probed.
Khursheed approached the Supreme Court with a chilling petition describing his ordeal after the Jammu and Kashmir 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 offences 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.
The apex court also ordered the payment of Rs 50 lakh in compensation to Khursheed, which shall be recoverable from the officers concerned, against whom a departmental proceeding shall be initiated upon the conclusion of the investigation by the CBI.
The Supreme Court outrightly rejected the claims of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir that the injuries were the result of a suicide attempt by the victim.