'FIR 75 Minutes Before Offence': J&K High Court Flags Lapse In Terror Case

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has pulled up the police for filing a  First Information Repotr (FIR) even before the offence was made out  in a terror case. The grave procedural lapse was detected during the bail hearing of a truck driver arrested in an arms smuggling case in 2019.

Raising serious questions about the procedure followed by the police, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court observed that the FIR was filed 75 minutes before the alleged offence.

Sabeel Ahmad Baba was arrested in September 2019 for allegedly transporting arms and ammunition at Lakhanpur in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district.

While hearing the bail plea, Justice Rahul Bharti cited police records and noted that the FIR at Lakhanpur Police Station was lodged at 8.30 am on September 12, 2019, while the seizure of the weapons from his truck was made at 9.45 am that same day.

According to police records, four AK-56 rifles, two AK-47 rifles, 180 rounds of ammunition and six magazines were recovered from the truck. Police also arrested four other accused in the case. Among them Jahangir Ahmad Parray and Ubaid-ul-Islam, who were traveling in Baba's truck. According to police records, weapons were sent by Ashique Ahmad Nengroo, a Pakistan-based operative of Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The court said that it cannot distance itself from the striking discrepancies in the filing of the FIR and timing of the alleged commission of the offense. 

During the hearing, the court remarked that the original FIR had not been submitted with the final police report and instead, a copy from the prosecution was attached to the record. The court has summoned the investigating officer to appear in person at the next hearing.

"From the record, it is forthcoming that the original FIR No. 0061/2019 of Police Station, Lakhanpur (Kathua) was submitted before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua, which was sent by the court of 3rd Additional Sessions Judge (designating Judge under NIA Act), Jammu in terms of an order dated 10.03.2020, but no original FIR no 0061/2019 dated 12.09.2019 came to be received from the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua. Instead, a copy of the FIR came to be procured from the Prosecution to be annexed for the purpose of providing the information to this Court," the Bench stated.