BSF Comdt acquitted, 10-yr term for 4 upheld
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 20
Nearly 14 years after the Jammu & Kashmir High Court took suo motu cognisance of news-reports in the “J&K sex scandal case”, allegedly involving inducement and blackmail of teen-aged girls, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today set aside the judgment of conviction and sentence awarded to BSF Commandant KC Padhi.
J&K sex scandal
The case has its genesis in an FIR registered on March 14, 2006, at the Shaheed Ganj police station in Srinagar district under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, with the allegation that a fruit vendor received a pornographic clip of a girl belonging to the vicinity.
Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan, at the same time, upheld 10-year rigorous imprisonment sentence awarded to four accused, including “decorated officer” of the J&K police Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
The other accused whose appeals were dismissed by Justice Sangwan are Shabbir Ahmed Langoo, alias Lone, Masood Ahmad, alias Maqsood, and Shabbir Ahmad Laway, alias Shabbir Kala.
After hearing senior advocate Bipan Ghai for Padhi, Justice Sangwan — among other things — asserted: “By using the feeble shoulders of the prosecutrix as a pedestal, some organisations tried to settle their own agendas against paramilitary forces. Therefore, the possibility of false implication of KC Padhi at the hands of prosecution witness-prosecutrix under pressure of the CBI cannot be ruled out as she herself was socially condemned by a hostile and volatile society at that time and was in the protective custody of the CBI.”
Justice Sangwan added that he was falsely implicated in the case. As such, the trial court findings were reversed and Padhi was acquitted of rape charge under Section 376 of the RPC.
The case has its genesis in an FIR registered on March 14, 2006, at the Shaheed Ganj police station in Srinagar district under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, with the allegation that a fruit vendor received a pornographic clip of a girl belonging to the vicinity. It was followed by a protest by local residents. Later, the state government handed over the investigation to the CBI for further probe. The CBI then registered a case on May 10, 2006.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter in May 2006, the J& K High Court had asserted: “What makes the reports alarming are allegations that some persons highly placed in different spheres are directly involved.”
The trial of the case was later transferred to Chandigarh by the Supreme Court of India.
Justice Sangwan asserted that the prosecutrix was proved to be a minor at the time of the alleged incident. The trial Court also rightly recorded the finding that the pornographic clip was of the prosecutrix.
