Shopian: Panel indicts 4 J&K cops, fresh FIR against SP

SRINAGAR: The Muzaffar Jan Commission appointed to probe the Shopian murders has found four cops of the J&K police guilty. Making the panel findings public, the state government pledged to extend full co-operation and support to the special investigation team probing the case.

Accepting recommendations of the commission, the government has decided to proceed against the four cops, already placed under suspension, and register a fresh FIR against the superintendent of police for lying under oath before the commission. The case is still unresolved but the commission has indicated involvement of a policy agency.

The murders that chief minister Omar Abdullah initially termed to be a case of drowning triggered massive unrest in the state. It led to the death of two protesters. Shopian town is still on strike even after six weeks.

���It is historic that a judicial commission completed its investigations within a month,��� law minister Abdul Rahim Rather said. ���The government will offer every kind of supper to SIT so that the accused are identified and brought to book���. He said all directions of the high court have been complied with and a senior officer of unquestionable integrity, IGP Farooq Ahmad, has already taken over investigations.

The commission, however, has been unable to answer some terms of reference especially pinpointing the accused.

In its report the commission said: ���To identify real culprits, extensive investigation, by a competent and dedicated team of professional investigators, with all modern facilities, is required. However, the extensive investigation is bound to take some more time. The commission, with time constraint and limitations to confine its report to the specific points under reference, cannot undertake detailed investigation, which may require raids, search, arrest, detention for sustained interrogation of number of persons suspected of the commission of the crime.���

It said that ���there is material on the file to hold, that the involvement of some agency of J&K Police, in the present incident, cannot be ruled out.��� The commission has offered no plausible explanation as why top executive of the government was misled. ���The actions being taken will answer that question.���