Srinagar, Oct 17, KDC: A Kupwara resident, who claims to have been repeatedly branded as an Over Ground Worker of a proscribed terror outfit despite reportedly having no criminal record, has been granted interim relief by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which directed the police and other authrioties not to subject him to any harassment.
Justice Sanjay Parihar was hearing the plea of Mushtaq Ahmad Bajard, who alleged that the Kupwara Police had unjustly tagged him as an associate of Jaish-e-Mohammad. The tagging, his counsel argued, stemmed solely from the fact that Bajard’s brother had crossed the Line of Control in 1990, and was later killed in an encounter in Machil, for which a First Information Report was registered in 2002.
During the initial hearing on October 14, Justice Parihar took exception to the police action. The court noted that, according to the concerned Station House Officer, no First Information Report was ever registered against Bajard. Observing that the police order maintaining his OGW status allegedly suffered from a non-application of mind, Justice Parihar remarked that “on the face of it the order impugned does not carry any substance.”
The court had subsequently summoned the Senior Superintendent of Police, Kupwara, along with the case records, to justify the tagging. When the matter came up for hearing the following day, Government Advocate Faheem Shah, representing the police authorities, sought time to file a detailed reply, as well as an affidavit from the SSP, to substantiate the police action. Granting four weeks to the state to file its response, the court dispensed with the personal appearance of the district police chief.
Providing immediate respite to the petitioner, Justice Parihar ordered that “on the strength of the order, the petitioner shall not be put to any harassment.” The court, however, clarified in its October 15 order that the directive “does not prevent the police agency from taking action against him in accordance with law.”
The legal battle to clear his name is not new for Bajard. In May this year, he had approached the High Court seeking the removal of the OGW label from all police and intelligence records, claiming that it prejudiced his family and deprived them of constitutional entitlements, including the issuance of a passport. At that time, Justice M. A. Chowdhary had disposed of his petition by directing the police to consider his representation within six weeks.
Following the May directive, the police reportedly reconsidered his case, but passed an order retaining the OGW tag. This prompted Bajard to approach the court a second time, alleging that the authorities had acted arbitrarily, and without any lawful justification or material evidence. (KDC)
