By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Thursday suspended the trial of five Indian Army officers accused of staging the killing of five alleged militants in Jammu and Kashmir in 2000.
A bench of judges B.N. Agarawal and Justice P.P. Naolekar halted till further orders the trial of the five officers on a defence ministry petition challenging the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) decision to go ahead with their prosecution without seeking mandatory approval from the government.
The five officers are Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lieutenant Colonel Brajedra Pratap Singh, Major Saurabh Saxena, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan.
The CBI has charged them with killing five innocent villagers while conducting an operation at Pathribal in Kashmir’s Anantnag district in the wake of the March 20 massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chittisingpora. The massacre occurred on the eve of then US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India.
The operation was jointly conducted with the local police, who approached the army after a suspected terrorist named Mohammed Yaqoob Wagey, arrested on March 21, confessed to participating in the Sikhs’ massacre.
Yaqoob also told the police about the possible hideouts of the other militants involved in the killing.
In the joint operation launched March 25, the army claimed to have killed the five militants responsible for the massacre.
The issue later snowballed, with the locals saying the killed men were not militants but innocent village residents.
The case was handed over to the CBI, which gave a clean chit to the police and launched proceedings against the army personnel – without taking mandatory approval from the government.
While staying the trial, the bench also issued notice to the CBI and the Kashmir government on the defence ministry petition challenging the state high court order that found no fault in the prosecution of the army officers.