SRINAGAR : A military tribunal has recommended that Captain Bhupendra Singh receive a life sentence for his role in the murder of three civilians during a staged encounter in Amshipura, Shopian, in July 2020. The court-martial processes took less than a year to complete, and it was determined that Captain Singh had gone beyond his permissible boundaries under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).
Three individuals, including Captain Singh, were accused of “creating a fake encounter” by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that the Jammu and Kashmir Police had established. According to reports, the punishment will need to be confirmed by higher army officials.
The three young men, who were mistakenly identified as “militants,” were killed on July 18, 2020, in a remote highland village in the Shopian area of Jammu and Kashmir. Social media outcry over the executions prompted the army to convene a Court of Inquiry, which discovered the proof that the troops had exceeded their AFSPA authority.
Captain Singh is accused of lying to his superiors and the police about the fake encounter, according to the JKP’s SIT charge sheet. The SIT, which was looking into the case in a separate inquiry, had claimed that the three defendants distributed false information and allegedly destroyed evidence as part of a criminal conspiracy to obtain financial awards. However, the army refuted Captain Singh’s assertion that he faked the encounter in exchange for money, asserting that no such system exists for any actions taken in the course of duty or during the conflict.
Abrar Ahmed’s father, Mohammed Yusuf, was asked to furnish a report that was missing during the court martial hearings. On visiting the families in Rajouri, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha delivered a message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi assuring them of the assistance of the government. The three young men’s identities were established by a DNA test, and once their bodies were returned to their relatives and buried in their home town in Rajouri, they were identified.
