National
Speculation over judge's killing
By Shujaat Bukhari
JAMMU, DEC. 6. The killing of the District and Sessions Judge (Rajouri), Vijay Kumar Phool, in Poonch on Wednesday is not being dismissed as a mere ``militancy-related incident'' here. It has opened a new chapter in the 13-year-old insurgency during which judicial officers were never among the targets of militants.
Even as police insist that the killing is the handiwork of militants, eyebrows have been raised over the manner in which the judge was shot dead along with his two bodyguards. The area through which Phool's car passed is militancy-prone and that was why he had opted for a civilian vehicle.
Officials feel the killing could be the result of a well-knit operation where the militants might have been informed about the judge's movement from Rajouri.
But Phool had not been associated with the TADA Court nor had passed any significant judgment against militants. All that a senior police official could say was: ``We have registered a case and we cannot comment on any aspect of the incident.'' The few judicial officers killed by the militants in the past include N.K. Ganjoo who was gunned down in November 1989 in Srinagar. He had passed the order of a death sentence on the JKLF founder, Maqbool Butt. In Rajouri, Mr. Kamlesh Proch had escaped a bid on his life during his tenure as District Judge in 1998-99.
A major lapse
A major lapse occurred on the part of police yesterday in returning the bodies of those killed to their kin. The body of Vinod Sodhi, a friend of Phool, was sent to Phool's residence in Poonch. Without realising it, Phool's relatives mourned over the body throughout the night.
Phool's body was sent to Rajouri for the onward journey to Sodhi's residence in Jammu. Later Phool's body was brought back from Rajouri and cremated in Poonch and Sodhi's body was sent to Jammu.
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