Srinagar,February 16:Sixteen boys, some of them barely 13, were picked up for allegedly waging war against the state and paraded on Monday to a sub- judge’s court in Srinagar.
The police told the court that by “ pelting” stones at paramilitary forces and policemen in Srinagar, the teenagers waged war against the government and insulted national honour.
The defence lawyer alleged that the police did not follow basic procedures of invoking such serious penal provisions of the law. He argued that though the boys were sent to seven days’ judicial custody, many of them were not even 18 and hence should have been sent to juvenile homes.
The Jammu and Kashmir government booked the teenagers suspected of pelting stones in Srinagar under the 121 Ranbir Penal Code ( waging war against the state) and the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act.
Anyone found guilty of violating the Code can be sentenced to life imprisonment, while flouting the Act can attract a term of two years.
The 16 teenagers, mostly from downtown Srinagar and aged between 13 and 18, were arrested from Nawakadal, Bohri Kadal, Nowhatta and neighbouring areas by men from Nowhatta police station on Sunday.
Inside the courtroom, the boys in shackles broke down while denying that they had attacked the security forces. “ The police picked us up from different localities,” one of them told the court. “‘ I was riding a scooter when some policemen stopped me and arrested me,” he said.
Relatives, accompanying the distraught boys, consoled them.
Their counsel Rafique Ahmad Joo refuted the police allegations.
He argued in the court that the police could book people under the 121 RPC only after following proper procedures.
“ The police should first verify and present a report to a district magistrate about the activities of the accused if they have to be booked under the Code. If the district magistrate feels that the police report should be acted upon, he has to file an FIR in the court against the accused under the 121 RPC. Only after then can the police arrest them,” the lawyer said.
Opposing the teenagers’ remand saying that the men in uniform did not follow legal procedures, Joo pleaded with the court that they should not be kept in a police lockup.
In a related development, the family of a teenager who was killed by a police shell on January 31, approached a court for registering an FIR against the police. Farooq Ahmad, father of deceased Wamik, reasoned that because the state government identified the BSF trooper involved in the recent killing of another teenager Zahid Farooq, the police should disclose the name of policeman who killed Wamik.
Accordingly, the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Srinagar directed the senior superintendent of police Srinagar, Javid Riyaz Bedar, to submit a report within five days about the Wamik killing.