Kupwara: Three Lieutenant Colonels among sixteen army personnel have been booked for ‘attempt to murder, abduction, robbery and rioting’ by the police.
Four policemen were critically injured and shifted to SKIMS Soura for specialized treatment after the personnel of 160 Territorial Army in Batpora Kupwara broke into a police station late Tuesday evening.
The incident, sources said, was sparked by a raid on a residence of a local Territorial Army man by a police team in connection with an ongoing investigation.
Sixteen army personnel, including three Lieutenant Colonels, were named in a police FIR, sources told Kashmir Newsville. The FIR reportedly charges them with attempt to murder, rioting, abduction, and robbery, along with other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A Srinagar based defense spokesman had on Monday downplayed the incident; saying the reports of altercation between police and army personnel and beating up therein of police personnel are baseless and incorrect.
“Minor differences between the police personnel and a territorial army unit on an operational matter have been amicably resolved,” the spokesperson had said.
The errant army personnel, according to FIR, have also been accused of abducting an on-duty cop, besides beating and injuring others with rifle butts and bamboo sticks.
The Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Syeed Peerzada Mujahidul Haq has been tasked with investigation into the instant case.
The attack, which left four policemen injured, occurred around 11:40 in the night, after the erring army personnel in a fit of rage, stormed into the police station in Kupwara on May 27.
Lieutenant Colonels Ankit Sood, Raju Chauhan, and Nikhil from the 160 Territorial Army are among the officers listed in the First Information Report of the police.
“They collectively and without any provocation in the form of unlawful assembly severely attacked the staff and officers present at the police station with rifle butts, kicks and sticks,” the police FIR reads.
It said the information was immediately conveyed to senior police officers who rushed to the police station to rescue them.
“Upon seeing the arrival of police units and senior police officers the alleged personnel and officers of 160 Territorial Army led by Lieutenant Colonel Ankit Sood, Raju Chauhan and Nikhil brandished their weapons and snatched the mobile phones of the injured personnel and SHO PS Kupwara Inspector Mohammad Ishaq and while fleeing they abducted MHC Ghulam Rasool along with them and absconded from the spot,” it said.
The FIR has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 307 (attempt to murder), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 147 (punishment for rioting).
The accused also face charges under sections 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 392 (punishment for robbery), 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person).
They have been booked under the Arms Act, according to the FIR.(PTI)
