A court in Jammu and Kashmir has rejected bail pleas of eight policemen arrested by the CBI for allegedly resorting to custodial torture on a Police Constable back in 2023. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, Aadil Mushtaq Ahmad, rejected the pleas on Saturday.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Aijaz Ahmad Naik, Inspector Riyaz Ahmad Mir, and the other accused cops — Tanveer Ahmad Malla, Altaf Hussain Bhat, Mohammad Younis Khan, Shakir Hussain Khoja, Shahnawaz Ahmad Deedad, and Jehangir Ahmad Beigh — had filed separate bail applications before the court.
The accused policemen, who were arrested on the order of the Supreme Court, had sought bail in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the charges of custodial torture and grievous bodily injuries inflicted upon Constable Khursheed Ahmed Chowhan during his alleged illegal confinement at the Joint Interrogation Centre Kupwara in February 2023.
“The court is of the considered opinion that none of the three applications disclose any exceptional circumstance warranting departure from the settled principle that bail is not to be granted in serious custodial violence cases at the investigative stage,” the judge ruled in the single verdict on all three bail applications together.
The judge further ruled limited jurisdiction on the court in matters of non-bailable cases involving offences punishable with severe terms.
“However, the prosecution has persuasively demonstrated that custodial supervision remains necessary to prevent interference and intimidation,” he added.
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