In what seen as traditional biasness, Indian Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by the father of a fake encounter victim, Amir Magrey, seeking the exhumation of his body nearly 14 months after his martyrdom in custody in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala in its order said, “This review petition has been filed against the judgment dated 12th September, 2022 whereby the Appeal was dismissed”.
“In our opinion, no case for review of Judgment dated 12th September, 2022 is made out. Consequently, the review petition is dismissed on merits,” the top Indian court said.
On 12 September last year, the court had dismissed the appeal filed by Amir’s father, Mohammad Latif Magrey, against the judgement by a division bench of IIOJK High Court which had overturned its single bench order directing exhumation of the body from Wadder Payeen graveyard in Kupwara and its transportation to native village of Amir— Thatharka Seripora in Tehsil Gool area of Ramban district— with “promptitude and without wasting any further time.”
“It will be too much at this stage to disinter the body…The dead should not be disturbed and some sanctity should be attached to the grave,” the Division bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala had said in its ridiculous order on September 12 last year.
Amir was among 4 persons martyred by Indian police in Hyderpora area of Srinagar on November 15, 2021. While the remains of two of them— Altaf Ahmad Butt and Dr. Mudasir Gul— were exhumed and handed over to their kin, the bodies of Magrey and the fourth person were buried in Kupwara district.
Amir’s family said he was a civilian and sought the return of his body. While refusing Magrey’s plea, the SC bench on September 12 had noted that “almost 9 months have passed post burial which is suggestive that the body may not be in a deliverable state”. The other bodies, it pointed out, had been exhumed in two days and would still have been in a deliverable state.—KMS
