Srinagar: The Army’s Northern Command chief on Monday confirmed the life sentence awarded to six Army personnel, including a colonel-rank officer, by a general court martial in the 2012 Machil fake encounter case.
Defence spokesperson at Udhampur, SD Goswami, said, “General officer commanding-in-chief, Northern Command, has confirmed the sentence of the summary general court martial in the Machil encounter case. Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devendra Kumar, Lance Naiks Lakhmi and Arun Kumar and Rifleman Abbas Hussain have been awarded life imprisonment”.
On April 30, 2010, Army said it had killed three ‘terrorists’ in the Machil sector along the Line of Control and claimed that they were heavily armed Pakistanis who had just sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir to carry out terror strikes.
However, police and Army investigations spanning over three years revealed that the trio Shehzad Ahmed, Muhammad Shaffi and Reyaz Ahmed was lured from their homes in Nadihal village of Baramulla district by the soldiers with the promise of money and jobs but then shot dead near the de-facto border with Pakistan.
The gruesome killings had triggered a 2-month agitation in Kashmir Valley. The Army’s court martial proceedings began in January last year and ended in September, 2014. All the soldiers and officers involved were found guilty of conspiracy, murder and falsely describing the slain men as terrorists.
The six Army personnel will now be handed over to jail authorities as legal proceedings have been completed by the Army. An appeal can be filed in high court such cases, sources said.
Police had chargesheeted nine people in July 2010, including six Army personnel, but had to hand over the probe to the Army after it was assured of holding a detailed inquiry into the incident. Following the alleged fake encounter, a Territorial Army jawan and two others were arrested by police, but it led to widespread unrest in the entire Valley which left 123 people dead.
Police had arrested three persons Abbas Shah, the Territorial Army jawan, Basharat Lone and Abdul Hamid Bhat-for alleged involvement in the encounter. These three people will stand trial once the final report of the Army will be submitted before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Sopore.
