Srinagar: The family of the Umar Qayoom Bhat, 17, who according to his father was “ruthlessly assaulted and tortured to death by the police” on August 25, 2010, on Wednesday demanded the filing of a charge sheet against police personnel involved in the “crime”.
On this afternoon, the father and the sister of the deceased teenager staged a peaceful protest in Srinagar’s press colony and urged the authorities to file the charge sheet delayed for the last three years
Holding a placard, the father of the deceased Abdul Qayoom said that despite registering the FIR after eight years, the police is yet to file the charge sheet.
According to Qayoom, on Friday, August 20, 2010, after prayers, the stone pelting was going on in his area Soura and Umar was returning home after prayers, but police caught hold of him and he was “beaten up mercilessly and dragged to the nearby police post”.
Qayoom said that the condition of his son worsened during detention and that the repeated plea for his release was outrightly rejected by the police officials.
He further said that on the very next day he got the bail for his son’s release and immediately shifted him to hospital.
“Next day, he was scheduled to get released at 1:00 pm but police set him free at 7:00, in the evening,” Qayoom said.
He added: “At the hospital, the doctors, due to unknown reasons, discharged Umar from the hospital. On the next day when his condition got worsened; I rushed him to the hospital again where Doctors revealed that my son is 80 percent dead. They later put him on the ventilator.”
According to the reports, Umar died in the hospital on August 25, 2010, and the huge protest march against his alleged killing was taken out in the area.
Urzeeba, the deceased teenager’s sister, said that her brother was killed in police custody and he was tortured to the extent that 80 percent of his internal organs were damaged.
So far, Urzeeba said, the family approached to Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), JK State Human Rights Commission, National Human Rights Commission of India, and JK grievance cell but nothing happened on the ground.
The court had earlier given 42 days to police to present in the court with those involved in the crime but neither they appeared nor any action was taken later.
Demanding justice, the family on the eleventh death anniversary of Umar, said as nearly three years have passed after the First Investigation Report (FIR) was filed on the directions of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar in 2018 but police is yet to submit a charge sheet into the case.
Urzeeba said that the family is thankful to Advocate Babar Qadri who helped them to register the FIR.
Qadri was assassinated by unidentified gunmen at his home in Srinagar on 24 September 2020.
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