New Delhi: The Armed Forces Tribunal’s (AFT’s) 9 November suspension of the life term awarded to Captain Bhoopendra Singh alias Major Bashir Khan in the Amshipora ‘fake encounter’ case has come as a setback to the Army.
In what is worrying for the Army, the AFT noted that it was clear the Captain did not have any motive to kill three civilians and conduct such an operation without the knowledge of his senior officer even though the force had squarely pinned the blame on him.
So what transpired on 18 July, 2020, and on what grounds has the AFT suspended Singh’s sentence? ThePrint brings a timeline of the events:
The ‘encounter’
On 18 July, 2020, three people were killed in an “encounter” with the Army in a village of Amshipora area of district Shopian.
While most encounters are credited as joint operations by the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the latter issued a press statement later in the day stating that the encounter followed a “specific input by 62RR (Rashtriya Rifles) about the presence of terrorists”.
It added, “An operation was launched by them (Army) in the said area. During the search, terrorists fired upon Army personnel and the encounter started.”
The statement categorically clarified that the police and CRPF joined the operation “later”. Subsequently, the slain men were buried at a graveyard in Baramulla since they remained unidentified.
The controversy over the alleged encounter unravelled when on 9 August that year, a Jammu family from Peeri tehsil reported three young men — Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrar, aged between 17 and 25 years — as missing since 17 July.
The Rajouri police filed a missing persons’ report 10 August for the three men, based on the family’s complaint that they had fallen off the radar following a Shopian visit.
Soon after, photos of the three men went viral while another image of the men killed in the ‘encounter’ appeared on social media. The family identified the slain men as the ones they reported missing.
The family told ThePrint at the time that the trio had left their residence on 16 July on foot and called home the next day at 7.30 pm from Shopian. “They called us and said they had reached Shopian and even managed to rent a place,” said Naseeb Ahmed, a relative.
Local political parties called for an investigation into the matter and termed the encounter as “fake” and “staged”.
Following this, the Army sought to clarify its position by issuing a press statement which said, “We have noted social media inputs linked to the operation at Shopian on 18 Jul 2020. The three terrorists killed during the operation have not been identified and the bodies were buried based on established protocols. (The) Army is investigating the matter.”
On 18 September the same year, the Army issued a statement that prima facie evidence showed that the powers vested under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFPSA) were “exceeded”, and that directions had been passed to initiate disciplinary proceedings against erring officers.
Meanwhile, the J&K police set up a Special Investigations Team (SIT) to probe the encounter and the missing persons case.
Subsequently, it filed a charge sheet in a local court on 26 December the same year. The charge sheet accused Captain Bhoopendra Singh and a civilian named Tabish Nazir Malik, who, according to the police, was known to the officer, of murder and abduction, among other charges, under the Indian Penal Code.
Civilian Bilal Ahmed Lone was also named in the charge sheet, but wasn’t charged. Lone turned an approver in the case and then acted as a key witness in the J&K police-led investigation.
As reported by ThePrint earlier, according to the charge sheet, the Army captain first abducted the youth with the help of his two accomplices, then killed them while planting illegally acquired weapons and material on their bodies. The trio were tagged as “hardcore terrorists” by the Army officers, according to the charge sheet. The two civilians accompanying the Captain, however, were asked to leave before the killings took place, the charge sheet said.
The charge sheet said the two civilians were summoned by Captain Singh, codenamed Major Basheer Khan, at the Army’s Camp Reshinagri, on 17 July. The J&K police said that the duo went to meet Singh at the camp in a car.
From there, the three men took another vehicle parked in the Army facility. The SIT investigation team found that this car was used to transport the Rajouri men. This vehicle was found to have been arranged by a team of six personnel from the 62 RR at around 6.30 pm on 17 July. Later in the evening, the accused abducted the three men from their rented accommodation, hours after the latter had arrived in Shopian to find work. Also walking a certain distance, they were transported to Amshipora, the charge sheet said.
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Captain’s appeal and AFT judgment
Captain Singh was taken into Army custody in August 2020 and remained in jail while a Court of Inquiry (CoI) was on. The court martial proceedings against Singh commenced 31 December 2021 at Old Air Field in Srinagar.
The officer’s court martial proceedings concluded 16 January this year and he was given the punishment a day later. The Army court declared Captain Singh guilty on six charges including murder, recommending life imprisonment for him.
Challenging the findings of the court, the Captain appealed before the Principal Bench of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in Delhi this March, claiming he had “obediently complied with the orders of his commanding officer” who was part of the operation like many others from his unit. The appeal named the chief of the Army Staff and three other senior officers, including the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Northern Command as respondents.
In his appeal, Singh termed the court martial proceedings, which were preceded by a Court of Inquiry (CoI), as “illegal and mala fide”. He alleged that he was being made the “scapegoat” and that manipulations were carried out.
This 9 November, the AFT suspended the life term awarded to the Captain. The tribunal granted conditional bail to Singh, directing him to appear before its principal registrar every now and then, beginning January 2024. The tribunal has, however, not stayed a conviction in the case.
In its 27-page order, the two-member tribunal headed by chairperson Justice Rajendra Menon said, “…in our considered view, the evidence relied upon by the prosecution and accepted by the Summary General Court Martial (SGCM) in the present case is not convincing enough to hold the applicant guilty of the charges levelled against him… prima facie, evidence available on record suggests that bail can be granted to the applicant by suspending the sentence.”
It added that the findings seemed “perverse” and “improper”. It said the General Court Martial had failed to consider various statements of witnesses and relied only on certain evidence inadmissible in law.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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