Srinagar
A local court in Srinagar on Wednesday directed government to provide fresh copy of charge sheet to defence counsel in DySP Muhammad Ayub Pandit lynching case after the counsel pleaded that copies provided to him were not legible.
Deputy Superintendent of police Muhammad Ayub Pandit was lynched at Nowhatta in Downtown Srinagar on June 22 this year.
Principal and district sessions judge Srinagar Rashid Ali Dar issued the directions after defence counsel NA Ronga and associates pleaded that some of the papers in the charge sheet were not legible.
Advocate Ronga informed the court about the page numbers which were not legible and court directed prosecution to provide those papers afresh.
The court later transferred the case to fourth additional principal and district sessions court for trial. All the 17 accused who are presently in judicial custody were produced before the court.
Advocate Ronga said that bail application is also pending before the court. On October 4, the 17 accused had filed a joint bail application through their counsels Advocates NA Ronga and BA Khan before the CJM court Srinagar.
On October 6, police had filed charge sheet in the court of chief judicial magistrate Srinagar against 17 persons. It also separately filed challan against four juveniles accused in the case.
The CJM Srinagar committed the challaan of 17 accused to the court of principal district and sessions judge Srinagar for trial and today principal district and sessions judge Srinagar transferred case to fourth additional principal district and sessions court. The case has been listed for October 16, 2017.
According to the challan, police have booked the accused in FIR 51 of 2017 for the offences 302 RPC (murder), 392 RPC (robbery), 341 RPC (wrongful restraint), 149 RPC (member of unlawful assembly), 148 RPC (rioting) RPC and section 13 Unlawful Activities Act. Prosecution has listed 84 witnesses.
