Why relief to Army captain casts shadow on role of senior officers in Amshipora fake encounter

The armed forces tribunal expressed scepticism that Singh carried out the killings of three young men on his own, and without the knowledge of his superiors.

Nov 23, 2023 - 07:30

Why relief to Army captain casts shadow on role of senior officers in Amshipora fake encounter

Seven months after an Army court found one of its officers guilty of killing three labourers in Amshipora village, Kashmir, and passing them off as militants, the Armed Forces Tribunal has flagged several lapses in the Army’s investigation.

On November 9, the tribunal’s principal bench in Delhi suspended the life imprisonment sentence to Captain Bhoopendra Singh and granted him bail. In March, a court martial had indicted Singh, from the 62 Rashtriya Rifles unit, of the murder of the three young men in a staged encounter in Shopian district in July, 2020.

The suspension of sentence has been met with dismay in Kashmir, with several political leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, questioning the respite to the captain.

The Kashmir police’s own investigation had shown that Singh had abducted the three men from their rented accomodation and taken them to “an unattended lone house/shelter in an orchard” in Amshipora “where they were murdered.”

However, the armed forces tribunal said that the flaws in the court martial proceedings might open the door to the captain’s acquittal. The tribunal expressed scepticism at the prosecution’s claim that Singh carried out the alleged fake encounter on his own, and without the knowledge and directions of his superiors.