STRUCTURES OF VIOLENCE

156 | Structures of Violence
Alleged Perpetrators
th
1. Personnel, 67 Battalion Central Reserve
Police Force [CRPF], A Company
Case Information
Fayaz Ahmad Shalla was picked up by CRPF
personnel on 16 July 1990 and was taken to his
residence. Subsequent to that he was taken to an
unknown destination and then brought back to his
house for a search at 9:30 pm. Nothing was recovered
at his residence. The family of the victim state that the
victim was in a terrible condition. During the second
raid, the brother of the victim, Bashir Ahmad Shalla,
was picked up and tortured at Hariniwas Interrogation
Centre. He was subsequently released [but due to the
torture he died later on]. Subsequent to that Fayaz
Ahmad Shalla disappeared. The Deputy Inspector
General of Police [DIG], Criminal Investigations
Department [CID], Counter Insurgency Kashmir
[CIK], Jaswant Singh informed the family that Fayaz
Ahmad Shalla was in the Joint Interrogation Centre.
Further, the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar and
Wajahat Habibullah, Divisional Commissioner,
Srinagar, conrmed to the family of the victim that he
was a militant and could not be released.
The family of Fayaz Ahmad Shalla gave a statement
to the IPTK on 10 March 2012.
The family of Fayaz Ahmad Shalla led a petition
[habeas corpus petition, HCP 346/1991] before the
High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. On 15 April 1991
the High Court ordered that an interview be arranged
between Fayaz Ahmad Shalla and his family and
lawyer. As per the family, they were not allowed to
avail of this order and meet with Fayaz Ahmad Shalla.
On 20 May 1992, the Jammu and Kashmir Home
Ministry submitted before the Court that the victim had
not been picked up by “any of the security forces party
in the valley”. The High Court appointed the District
and Sessions Judge, Srinagar on 30 March 1995 as
an enquiry ofcer, and a report was submitted on 12
May 1998 that conrmed that the victim was lifted by
the CRPF on 16 July 1990 by CRPF personnel at
Fateh Kadal, detained at the CRPF Camp, Fateh
Kadal and then taken to the Interrogation Centre
known as Papa-II [Fair View Guest House] and then
the Interrogation Centre at Hariniwas, and the victim's
whereabouts are not known subsequent to that.
Following this, the High Court, on 15 December 1998,
ordered that a case be registered and investigations
carried out.
A contempt petition [no. 1/2001] was led on 22
February 2001, a little less than two and a half
years later, against the non-ling of the FIR.
Subsequently, FIR no. 88/2001 u/s 364 [Kidnapping
/Abducting to murder] Ranbir Penal Code, 1989
[RPC] was led at the Maharaj Gunj [S. R. Gunj]
Police Station, which places the date of the incident
on 15 July 1990 and states that Fayaz Ahmad
Shalla was arrested along with Tanveer Ahmad
6
Dhobi . They were detained at CRPF camp at Fateh
Kadal and then sent to Papa-II Interrogation Centre.
The victim disappeared. By communication dated
30 November 2013 from the Jammu and Kashmir
Police it was stated that the case was under
investigation.
In 1999, the family of Fayaz Ahmad Shalla led
another petition [Original Writ Petition (OWP)
199/1999] before the High Court for compensation of
Rs. 10,00,000 for the killing of the victim. As per
records submitted before the High Court, the
investigation in the case was closed by declaring the
perpetrators as untraced on 17 November 2001, but
reopened on 18 July 2007. A status report of April
2009 before the High Court from the Jammu and
Kashmir Police indicates that the particulars of the
CRPF personnel involved are yet to be ascertained,
and the forces in control of the interrogation centres
has also not been ascertained. But, a compliance
report led by the police authorities in August 2011
th
suggests that four sections of the CRPF 67 Battalion,
A Company were deployed at New Fateh Kadal for
static picket duty between 20 December 1989 and 19
June 1991. The compliance report also states that in
the year 1990-1993 the “ITBP [Indo Tibetan Border
Police] force was deployed for guard duty in JIC
instead of CRPF”. The CRPF, in their afdavit of 28
September 2011 conrms the compliance report to
th
the extent that the 67 Battalion, A Company was
deployed at New Fateh Kadal at the relevant time but
states that the nominal roll of personnel deployed at
Fateh Kadal on 15 July 1990 can no longer be traced.
The CRPF, in its initial response before the High Court
in 2000, denies any control over the interrogation
centres and any role in the arrest of the victim. The
police and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir
state that they have no responsibility in the instant
case and deny playing any role in the incident.
Information on the petition numbers was sought
through the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information
Act, 2009 [RTI] on 16 February 2012. Only information
on OWP 199/1999 was provided. Information on
petition 346/1991 was sought again on 4 April 2014.
The family of Fayaz Ahmad Shalla approached the
State Human Rights Commission [SHRC] on 2 May
2001, and a decision was delivered on 25 March 2003
where ex-gratia government relief of Rs. 1,00,000 and
compassionate employment under SRO-43
[Statutory Rules and Orders] were recommended.
Further, the decision conrms the disappearance of
6 Information on the FIR was sought through the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 [RTI] on 5 May 2012. By
communication dated 2 June 2012 from the Jammu and Kashmir Police a copy of the FIR was provided. Further information sought
through RTI on 15 October 2013.