In a landmark verdict delivered more than 20 years after one of north Kashmir’s deadliest militant strikes, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has sentenced former Station House Officer (SHO) of Sogam, Ghulam Rasool Wani, to life imprisonment for criminal conspiracy in the 2003 Kupwara fidayeen attack.
The division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar, partly allowing the state’s appeal, declared that the trial court’s 2011 ruling acquitting Wani was “perverse and erroneous,” and found that the officer had actively enabled the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant who carried out the assault.
On May 12, 2003, Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ibrahim alias Khalil-Ullah, disguised in police uniform, was ferried in an official police vehicle from Sogam station to Kupwara Chowk.
Once there, he opened indiscriminate fire, killing two CRPF personnel — Constables B Prashad and B Ramaiah — and injuring six others before being shot dead.
“The then SHO, fully aware of the terrorist’s identity and mission, permitted him to proceed, thereby tacitly consenting to the killings,” the bench observed in its 30-page judgment. It likened the officer’s conduct to “firing a loaded cannon into a crowd.”
While confirming Wani’s conviction under Section 120-B read with 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code, the court ordered him to surrender before the trial court.
However, it upheld the acquittal of Abdul Ahad Rather, then Moharir of Sogam police station, citing insufficient evidence.
Witness testimonies from constables proved decisive, with the court ruling that Wani’s betrayal of his duty amounted to aiding terrorism. Proceedings against the militant were abated due to his death in the attack.
The judgment, delivered after two decades of legal battle, marks a rare instance where a police officer has been held guilty of collusion in a terror conspiracy, with the court underscoring that law enforcers who betray their oath not only fail the system but actively endanger lives.
