SRINAGAR: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has sought clarification from the Police Headquarters on whether the transfer of the investigation into FIR No. 34/2026 of Police Station Chatroo to the Crime Branch, Jammu, was accompanied by directions to constitute a Special Investigation Team headed by a senior Crime Branch officer and complete the probe in a time-bound manner.
Justice Rahul Bharti, hearing a petition filed by Mohd Shafi Bhumal, directed the government to place before the court the requisite information regarding the scope of the Crime Branch investigation.
The court specifically sought to know whether the Police Headquarters’ decision to hand over the investigation to the Crime Branch was “co-attended with a further direction for constitution of Special Investigation Team to be headed by Senior Police Official of the Crime Branch to carry out the assigned investigation in a time bound manner”.
The court underscored the need for the investigation to reach a substantive conclusion, cautioning against a situation where the case might ultimately remain merely a statistic.
The court observed that the probe should result in a “final outcome lest the crime in this case again becomes only a statistical figure to be quoted in the newspaper for the self-credit of the Police.”
The order was passed on August 31 in WP(Crl) No. 86/2026, along with CM No. 6018/2026.
Mohd Shafi Bhumal was represented by advocate Deepika Pushkar Nath, while the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and other respondents were represented by Senior Additional Advocate General Monika Kohli, assisted by Government Advocate Adrash Bhagat.
The court directed the government counsel to apprise it of the requisite information and listed the matter for further consideration on September 11.
The order, however, does not set out the allegations underlying FIR No. 34/2026, the circumstances leading to its registration, or the detailed arguments advanced by the parties. It is confined, at this stage, to the court’s query regarding the transfer of the investigation to the Crime Branch and whether a specialised, time-bound investigation mechanism has also been put in place.
