HC junks PIL seeking probe into killing of 39 Indians in Iraq

The Delhi High Court today dismissed a PIL seeking a detailed investigation into what it called "lapses" of the Centre in saving 39 Indians, who were killed by ISIS in Iraq in 2014, saying such pleas deserve "condemnation" and "need to be discouraged".

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the plea, by a lawyer, reflected "extreme insensitivity" towards the kin of the victims and the suffering they underwent and also does not take into account the steps taken by the central government to save the 39 Indians.

Observing that such pleas deserve "condemnation" and "need to be discouraged", the court imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner-lawyer, Mehmood Pracha, who was asked to deposit the amount in favour of the advocates welfare fund within four weeks.

Pracha, in his plea, had contended that the Centre was aware long back that the Indians had been killed by the terror outfit after their abduction from Mosul, but had chosen not to disclose it and kept taking the stand that they were alive.

He had claimed that there were glaring anomalies in the statement made by the External Affairs Minister on the floor of Parliament.

He had sought an investigation into the deaths as he wanted to know when and how the Indians were killed.

Advocate Manik Dogra, who had appeared for the Centre and the Intelligence Bureau during the proceedings, had argued that there was no public interest in this petition which should be dismissed with cost.

He had also highlighted the efforts made by the government to rescue the Indians, who were taken hostage at Mosul and said helplines were also set up by the Indian embassy.

The Centre's lawyer had earlier told the court that the government does not say "missing, presumed dead". He had added that "till 100 per cent confirmation of death, we continue to believe they are alive".

Pracha had in 2015 moved the court challenging a look-out circular issued against him to prevent him and his delegation from going to Iraq.

In his PIL, he has claimed that the reason he was stopped from travelling to Iraq was to ensure that his delegation did not find out about the fate of the 39 Indians, whose bodies were recently exhumed from a mass grave in Badosh, a village near Mosul, and brought back.