A high power panel of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court dealing with cases of Juvenile justice has cut to size the propaganda machinery, working round the clock to target security forces and government agencies, in the aftermath of ‘unprecedented’ lockdown since August 5 in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Exposing the ‘fiction‘ writers roped in by a section of foreign media and some of the Indian news portals, the four-member panel, headed by Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, carefully blasted their ‘fiction‘ stories by submitting details of police FIR’s lodged in the cases and subsequent investigations in the form of a comprehensive report.
“As the issue pertains to alleged detention of children, we direct the Juvenile Justice Committee of the J&K High Court to undertake an exercise with regard to facts stated in the writ petition and submit its report within a week’s time”
The Juvenile Justice Committee, in its report, to the Apex Court last week also submitted that out of 144 minors arrested by the police from different areas of Kashmir valley, in the aftermath of incidents of protests since August 5, 142 have been released and only two of them were languishing in juvenile homes.
The four-member panel had prepared its report after a bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Rajan Gogoi, on September 20 had sought details of cases highlighted by the foreign media and some of the news portals in their news reports on the prevailing situation in the Kashmir valley.
The petitioners in the case were child right activists Shanta Sinha and Enakshi Ganguly.
They had prepared their petition after scanning news reports of foreign media and news portal in which they had alleged large number of minors were taken in to illegal custody by the police since August 5, the day center government headed by Narendra Modi had decided to abrogate some of the provisions of Article 370, which granted special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“As the issue pertains to alleged detention of children, we direct the Juvenile Justice Committee of the J&K High Court to undertake an exercise with regard to facts stated in the writ petition and submit its report within a week’s time”, Justice Rajan Gogoi had noted while directing the JJC to submit their fact-finding report in a week’s time.
Sharing fact-finding report of the Director-General of Police, J&K JJC report concluded, the case of detention of 11-year-old minor from Pampore is factually not correct.
After completing the laborious exercise, the JJC members also submitted before the Apex court that, “the whole committee or its members individually has not received any complaint or representation from any individual, lawyer, human rights activists, groups, persons, organizations, civil society members or any other person complaining about arrest of any juvenile”.
Sharing fact-finding report of the Director-General of Police, J&K JJC report concluded, the case of detention of 11-year-old minor from Pampore is factually not correct. The news report has been published to tarnish the image of the state police and fabricate a sensational story.
Referring to repeated incidents of street protests in the Soura area of Srinagar, the JJC report stated, Police have confirmed that the Soura area has witnessed protest demonstrations in which minors were found involved in violence.
Naming and shaming prominent foreign media houses, “the JJC report stated the report carried by Washington Post does not indicate the source which has quoted this incident to check veracity”.
Referring to a Quint report related to an incident of violence in Baramulla, the JJC report stated the report appears to have been solely based on fictional imagination. It also stated that the local media has not published the report but the foreign media and online news portals published the same.
Referring to the detention of two minors involved in an incident of stone-pelting in Rajbagh police station on August 22, the JJC report stated,’ after proper counseling by the SHO, the children were handed over to their parents the same day.
Washington Post report on August 30 about two boys was also ‘wrong’ as it did not provide specifics about the alleged incidents.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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