The Centre on Friday filed a petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the FIR registered against Major Aditya Kumar of 10 Garhwal Rifles for his role in the alleged Shopian firing in which three persons were killed in January this year. According to news agency ANI, advocate Aishwarya Bhati, who filed the petition on behalf of Kumar’s father Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh, said a plea challenging the FIR was submitted in the court by the Centre.
On Monday, the apex court had stayed, till next hearing, the investigation into the case on the basis of the FIR and fixed the matter for final disposal on April 24.
The direction came after the Jammu and Kashmir government informed the court that the name of Major Aditya Kumar of 10 Garhwal Rifles was not mentioned in the FIR lodged by the J&K Police. The court had sought the state government’s reply as well as that of the Centre in the matter two weeks ago. While hearing the case last month, the court had also ordered that no coercive action should be initiated against Kumar.
The Centre has supported the plea. In his plea to the Supreme Court, Singh claimed that the firing was undertaken to control “a savage and violent mob engaged in terrorist activity” and that the FIR violated the fundamental rights of his son. The Army officer added that the petition was submitted “for protecting the morale of the soldiers of Indian Army, who are facing all odds in performance of their bonafide duties and laying their lives in the line of duty, to uphold the dignity of the Indian flag”.