Oppn demands tabling of Bedi Commission report in J-K Assembly

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today witnessed an uproar as opposition demanded tabling in House of the Justice H S Bedi commission report on the death National Conference (NC) worker Syed Mohammad Yousuf.
As the Assembly commenced, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) member Balwant Singh Mankotia raised the issue of the Bedi Commission report and sought that it should be tabled in the House so that it is made public.
Requesting Speaker Mubarak Gul for his direction to the government to table the report in the House, Mankotia said "We want that report should be made public -- we have till now known the outcome of the report though press and media reports -- we do not know what is factual report about it."

"The government should make it public through the House," he said and was supported by other members of JKNPP.
However, the request was turned down by the Speaker, who said it was not necessary. Angered by the Speaker's statement, the JKNPP members staged a walkout from the Assembly.
The 96-page report of Justice Bedi Commission was submitted to state Law Secretary G H Tantray at Jammu on December 22, 2012.

On a cumulative assessment of the evidence on record, it has been found that the death of Yousuf was caused by myocardial infarction or a heart attack and that no suspicious circumstances can be spelt out, the Commission said in the report, excerpts of which was released to media.

Yousuf was handed over to the IG, Crime Branch, by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on September 29 last year from the CM's camp office after he allegedly admitted to taking money from two National Conference workers for getting them favours from the state government. He died a day later.
Medical tests showed that Yousuf died of cardiac arrest and that there were no external injuries on his body.
The state government had on November 18 last year appointed the retired Supreme Court judge as the head of the Commission to probe the death of 61-year-old Yousuf in police custody.
The report was placed before the state Cabinet and approved by it in first week January this year.

Earlier in June this year, a magisterial probe looking into the death of Yousuf exonerated Abdullah and his aides from any wrong doing.
Rejecting the findings of Bedi Commission, the family of Yousuf had said that they would approach Supreme Court to get justice.
"This Commission was just eye-wash and we have been telling the same from the first day. We did not have any faith in it," Yousuf's son Syed Talib Hussain said.
Opposition PDP rejected the findings of the commission.
"This probe has not added to the credibility of accountability process in the State. It is now established beyond doubt that there are there are two sets of laws applied in the state. Influential can get away with anything," PDP Chief Spokesman Naeem Akther said.