Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today ordered the exhumation of the body of Mohammad Amir Magray, one of the four persons killed in an encounter in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar last year. While confirming the news to ETV Bharat, advocate Deepika Singh Rajawat said that a bench headed by Sanjeev Kumar has ordered the exhumation of the body.
A petition filed by Amir’s father, Mohammad Latief Magrey was passed today hence allowing the family to perform the last rites of their son. The latter had filed the petition in December last year. The court had reserved the verdict on May 19 after hearing both the parties, the bench also asked the government to make appropriate arrangements for transportation of the body to the native village in Ramban for burial.
The court, after reserving its verdict for nine days, left the government free to impose "any reasonable terms and conditions in regard to exhumation, transportation, and burial."
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The court has also said that in case the body is highly putrefied and is not in a deliverable condition or is hazardous to public health and hygiene, then Amir’s father and his close relatives shall be allowed to perform last rites as per their tradition and religious belief in the Wadder Payeen graveyard in Kupwara district itself. "The State, in this case, shall pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakhs to the petitioner for depriving him of his right to have the dead body of his son and give him decent burial as per family traditions, religious obligations, and faith which the deceased professed when he was alive," the court order, as per the judgment, reads.
The petitioner had pleaded the high court to direct the respondents, including the Union Home Ministry, J&K administration, and the Director-General of Police to hand over Amir's body for burial near his residence at Ramban. In order to make exhumation swift and make the magisterial probe public, Magray had also met Lieutenant Governor on December 7, 2021.
The petitioner said he and his wife are grieving ever since their son got killed as they have not been given a chance to see the face of their son the last time. Expressing his wish to bury his son close to his house in the Ramban district, the petitioner wants to ensure the burial of his dead son within a prescribed period after exhumation and in an atmosphere required to maintain peace.
