Court adjourns murder case against Bitta Karate

Srinagar, May 23

A Srinagar court on Monday adjourned the hearing of a case against Farooq Ahmad Dar, alias Bitta Karate, accused of killing Pandits during the armed insurgency in the 1990s.

The case was adjourned until June 7 as both the petitioner and their counsel didn’t appear before the court.

Advocate Utsav Bains, who is appearing for the petitioner, has decided to move to the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for seeking the transfer of the case by citing “security reasons”.

The counsel of the family of Satish Tickoo, who was shot dead on February 2, 1990, in Habba Kadal locality in Srinagar, filed the plea for adjournment of the case after he accused the J-K police of failing to provide him security. However, police denied the accusation.

Of the four hearing dates, Bains appeared in the first hearing when the judge had asked the rival counsels to prepare formal documents to contest in the court.

Karate as well as JKLF chief Yasin Malik are in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of funnelling funds from Pakistan into terror activities in Kashmir. The NIA arrested Karate in 2017 and Malik in February 2019.

Karate was initially arrested in 1990. He had admitted on camera to having killed 20 Pandits on the orders of the JKLF leaders. He later denied it, saying he gave the statement under duress.

In 2006, Karate was released for lack of evidence and “disinterest” of the prosecution.