Police deny pressuring passport litigants to withdraw cases

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir today police denied allegations that Crime Investigation Department (CID) is pressuring litigants to withdraw court cases. 

Police said they have come across several items in the media suggesting that its intelligence and counterintelligence wing among other things are pressurizing litigants to withdraw from the process of redressing their grievances through courts of law.

Police said ordinarily, law enforcement agencies do not rush to the public to discuss their work processes and procedures, especially those that are legally ordained to be discreet in the public interest. 

“Since some of the published items contain outrightly false assertions attributed to figures with the public profile it has become necessary to point out the untruthfulness of the claims,” police said.

Police said on learning that accusations have been made that CID has pressurized a litigant to refrain from litigating in the High Court in connection with her passport-related grievances, a quick internal audit was carried out.

“J&K Police can affirm that the claim of such pressure is completely false. Nevertheless, officers are being detailed to approach the aggrieved person and ascertain details – who pressurized, when, where and under what circumstances so that the quick internal inquiry if found inadequate can be expanded to take suitable disciplinary action against the delinquent,” police said.

Police said the “public person” has projected her grievance as also to be the grievance of the public in general in Kashmir.

 “This is very problematic. J&K Police and its affiliates are public institutions designed to serve the public interest. Denigrating the community’s institutions for grievances that are personal based on false accusations is self-harm,” police said. 

Police also released data about passport verifications to set the records straight.

 2020:  out of 77686 passport verifications received, 77644 (99.95%) cleared. 

2021: out of 75714 passport verifications received, 75176 (99.68%) cleared. 

2022: out of 134315 passport verifications received, 128939 (99.61%) cleared. 

“Security verifications preceding the issue of passports is a high-value public service. It is important to note that J&K Police has detected as many as 54 young boys who were wrongly given passport service during 2017-18. Unfortunately, all of them went to Pakistan, were taken to terrorist camps, and trained in arms, ammunition, and explosives, many of them were pushed back into J&K through LoC and 26 of them died while either crossing or during encounters in the hinterland. Lives of 12 of these young boys could be saved by the CID after their return from Pakistan, by bringing them under preventive custody so that terrorist-separatist syndicates do not succeed in pressuring them to join terror ranks,” police said.

Police said eventually all of the 12 have been handed over to their families. “Today they are alive and happily live amidst their mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, and friends.  Unfortunately, 16 of them are still across and trapped in camps under the control of hostile agencies. It is heartbreaking to know that in some cases even parents had no idea that passport services have been extended to these boys of tender age. Intelligence and investigation have confirmed that in every case the visa to Pakistan was arranged at the behest of one or the other leader of a constituent party of Hurriyat,” police said.

Police said  CID is committed to helping the parents of vulnerable young persons not fall prey to the death traps. “J&K Police is committed to speedy and hassle-free clearances for more than 99% who are ‘clean and green’ and a professional filtering of those who should be prevented from availing the service – some in their interest and others in the interest of the public,” police said.

Earlier in the day, Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter iltija Mufti launched a frontal attack against CID after she was issued a country-specific passport.