SC rejects plea for probing massacre of Kashmiri Pandits

The NGO Roots in Kashmir had claimed separatist leader Yasin Malik was involved in the murder of Kashmiri Pandits.

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL filed by an NGO seeking an order to investigate and prosecute various people for a clutch of offences including the massacre of over 700 Kashmiri Pandits between 1989 and 1990, saying it was too late.

The Supreme Court turned down a plea to order reinvestigation into the murder of 700 Kashmiri Pandits 27 years ago.(REUTERS)

Dismissing the PIL filed by an NGO, Roots in Kashmir, the court said “its heart wrenching but you should have moved the court 27 years ago”. The organisation has alleged that 215 FIRs had been lodged relating to the murder of over 700 Kashmiri Pandits.

The plea had also sought a probe and prosecution of various persons, including separatist leader Yasin Malik, for the murders of Kashmiri Pandits during the height of militancy in the Valley in 1989-90.

The PIL filed this year by the NGO on behalf of displaced Kashmiri Pandit youth had sought reinvestigations in criminal cases and transfer of these cases outside the state.

The PIL also contended that none of the murder case has reached a logical conclusion.

A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said that almost 27 years have passed and it will be very difficult to gather evidences in cases of murder, arson and looting which had led to mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.

“You (petitioner) sat over it for last 27 years. Now tell us from where the evidence will come,” the bench said.

The counsel for the NGO Vikas Padora said Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes in the Valley and could not join the investigation. While he conceded that here has been a delay, he also said neither the Centre nor the state government nor the judiciary took adequate note of it to do the needful.

(With agency input)