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Govt to review cases of stone pelting against youth: Kitchloo
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 6/2/2014 10:31:51 AM
‘Will take lenient view in deserving cases’
SRINAGAR, June 1: The minister of state for home affairs Sajad Kitchloo today said that the state government will review the cases against youth who have been booked for stone pelting at various places in valley and may release the accused who are found to have been booked in minor offences under general amnesty plan.
“The government has taken a call on the issue after National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah said that youth booked under stone pelting charges deserve a hassle free life,” Kitchloo said. The MoS home affairs informed that his ministry is going to review all the cases where the youth have been booked for stone pelting before recently concluded Lok Sabah elections. “The government will take a lenient view in genuine cases where the accused deserve to be given a chance to improve their behaviour,” he added.
The amnesty plan is seen as one of the initiatives of party’s course correction plans that have been chalked out after facing a drubbing in the recently held Lok Sabha elections in the state. Unconfirmed reports say that around 600 youth were rounded up in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls. But most of them were released after the elections were over. More than 1,300 youth in the Valley face charges of rioting and stone pelting since 2010.
Pertinently, Dr Abdullah had on May 29, said that the youth booked for stone pelting since 2010 need amnesty. The NC president had opined about amnesty after a group of young boys met appealed him to get police cases against them withdrawn. A group of youth in a party youth convention held in Srinagar had expressed serious concern about their ‘miserable life’ caused by the police cases against them.