New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has asked the Centre to give it jurisdiction over the terror cases of Jammu and Kashmir registered under the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) which involve offences of waging war against the country, among others.
The NIA feels since the Indian Penal Code is not applicable in J&K, the agency’s mandate is limited in the state where terror groups are active. The state has been under a terror onslaught from
Pakistan-sponsored terrorists for the last 25 years and the NIA is in particular interested in probing those cases which have international ramifications and in which funding comes from outside India.
Pakistan is also pushing fake Indian currency into the state as well.
The counter-terror agency has asked the Union home ministry to add RPC Sections 121 to 130 (that deal with crimes against the state, like waging war against the country) and a few other sections dealing with circulation of fake Indian currency in its list of scheduled offences.
The move is part of the NIA’s proposal to the Centre asking for more teeth to probe offences not under its jurisdiction currently but integrally connected with its mandate of probing terrorist acts.
Sources said that since the agency’s inception in 2008 following the Mumbai terror attacks, NIA sleuths have found a major anomaly in the legal framework in which they work. The Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) defines offences and their sentences in Jammu and Kashmir, much like the Indian Penal Code for the rest of India.
Under the NIA Act, the agency can take up investigation into any case registered under its scheduled offences without the consent of the state government concerned. But, since RPC is not part of the scheduled offences of the NIA, the agency cannot take up probe in any case registered under it on its own.
