The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear the father of Major Aditya Kumar, who has been named in an FIR lodged following an incident of violence and firing in Jammu & Kashmir’s Shopian district last month.
Lt. Colonel Karamveer Singh, a Kargil war veteran, argued through his lawyer before a bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices DY Chandrachud and AM Khanwilkar that his son was “wrongly and arbitrarily” named in the FIR. The bench agreed to hear the matter further on Monday.
The application refers to an incident in Shopian last month where a convoy of army personnel belonging to 10 Garhwal Rifles was attacked by a mob, which refused to disperse despite several warnings. Security forces had to retaliate in self defence and their firing ended up killing two people.
The incident had been a big point of contention for political parties in the state as the opposition demanded strict action against soldiers responsible. Even ruling BJP faced off against alliance partners PDP after CM Mehbooba Mufti announced that Major Aditya and some of his colleagues had been named in an FIR following the incident.
Major Aditya’s father claimed such FIRs had a demoralizing effect on soldiers who operate under inhospitable and hostile conditions. His advocate sought quashing of the FIR as the soldiers named in it were only defending themselves from an unruly mob when the situation went out of control.