The FIR states that the Army personnel, while fleeing, “abducted one official and absconded from the spot”.
While FIR has no mention of the cause of the confrontation, officials informed that the Army contingent barged into the police station after the police raided the house of a Territorial Army personnel in Batapora village and detained him for questioning in connection with a case.
A case has been registered in Kupwara police station under sections 186, 332, 307, 342, 147, 149, 392, 397, 365 of Indian Penal Code and 7/25 of Arms Act naming the 16 Army personnel from 160 Territorial Army, including three Lieutenant Colonels – Ankit Sood, Rajiv Chauhan and Nikhil.
The incident took place around 9:40 pm on May 28 and has been caught on CCTV cameras installed in the police station. As per the FIR, a large number of armed and uniformed personnel unauthorisedly entered the premises of the Kupwara police station and upon being questioned for unlawful assembly, they collectively and without any provocation, severely attacked the staff and officers present at the police station.
“They attacked with rifle butts and sticks…Upon seeing the arrival of the police units and senior police officers, the alleged personnel and officers of 160 Territorial Army, led by Lt Cols Ankit, Chauhan and Nikhil, brandished their weapons, snatched the mobile phones of the injured police personnel and SHO Kupwara,” read the FIR. The Army, in its statement that came before the FIR was made public, claimed reports of altercation between police and Army personnel and the beating up of police personnel were “misfounded and incorrect”. “Minor differences between the police personnel and a Territorial Army unit on an operational matter have been amicably resolved,” read an official statement from Srinagar-based defence spokesperson.
