NEW DELHI: Refusing to entertain a plea which sought prosecution of various persons including separatist leader Yasin Malik for offences including murder of over 700 Kashmiri Pandits during 1989-90, the Supreme Court on Monday said the delay is too much in the case.
A Bench of Chief Justices JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud said, “It is heart-wrenching. But you sat over it for last 27 years. Now tell us from where will the evidence come? It will be very difficult to gather evidences in cases of murder, arson and looting which had led to mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.”
The petition was filed by advocate Vikas Padora, appearing for an organization ‘Roots of Kashmir’ which stated that Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their houses in the Valley and could not join the investigation. The plea further submitted that the delay was there but neither the Centre nor the state government or the judiciary took adequate note of it to do the needful.
The organisation has alleged that 215 FIRs had been lodged relating to the murder of over 700 Kashmiri Pandits and none of the cases has reached a logical conclusion.
The PIL was filed on behalf of displaced Kashmiri Pandit youth and had sought re-investigation in criminal cases and transfer of these cases outside the state and also contended that none of the murder case has reached a logical conclusion. During 1990s when the militancy was at peak in the Kashmir Valley, thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were forced to abandon their homes and all their belongings as they fled the Valley amid rising threats and attacks on them.