KPs demand CBI probe into murder of constable Sameer Ji Kumar

Displaced Kashmiri Pandits today demanded a CBI probe into the alleged murder of constable Sameer Ji Kumar by his fellow policeman last month in north Kashmir.
President All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) Ravinder Raina said the case should be immediately handed over to the CBI for an "impartial investigation".
Sameer, who was posted in Srinagar, had gone missing on May 14. His body was recovered in the first week of June.
Police said that he was xallegedly murdered by his colleague as a revenge for sodomising him.
"Constable Sameer Ji Kumar, who went missing on May 14, was killed by SPO Aijaz Ahmad after Kumar resorted to sexual act with Ahmad," Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police, central Kashmir range, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, had told reporters in Srinagar on June 1.

A case of murder was later registered against Ahmad, a special police officer (SPO) posted in Srinagar.

While denouncing the "tardy" approach of the state government, The ASKPC leader said, "We demand probe by the CBI because we have no faith on the police investigation which has changed statements twice".
"The first statement of the police said he committed suicide under the influence of liqour and in the second said he was murdered," Raina told reporters here today.
Almost all organisation of the displaced Kashmiri pandits, amassing over 1500 people, participated in the 10th- day death rituals of Sameer.
They expressed their resentment on the "indifferent and callous manner" of the state administration with which the disappearance and subsequent murder of the cop was handled.

"ASKPC has apprehensions that such acts in the valley are solely directed at discouraging the community youth in joining their postings in the valley and is a part of the grand plan of the anti-national elements in subverting the return of the community to their roots," it alleged.
Terming the murder as a "conspiracy" to stall the return of pandits to the valley, Panun Kashmir leader Agnishekhar said, "It was a plan to Islamise Kashmir valley and establish the caliphate, which is evident from the current situation in the valley as government of India is in deep slumber, with no concrete policy towards the Kashmiri Pandits who are the worst sufferers of the turmoil in Kashmir".

The KPs also demanded adequate compensation to be paid to the family of the deceased cop.
Later, a large gathering of KPs also blocked Akhnoor road for impressing upon the state government to act swiftly on the issue.