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Plea Seeking Trial Against 'Bitta Karate' for Killing Satish Tickoo Listed for May 4

Anees Zargar |
Killing occurred more than three decades ago; Matter being argued based on criminal law.
Plea Seeking Trial Against 'Bitta Karate' for Killing Satish Tickoo Listed for May 4

Prithvi Nath Tickoo holds a picture of his son Satish Kumar Tickoo in his house in Jammu. Image Courtesy: Twitter/@rahulpandita

Srinagar: A sessions court on Friday heard a plea seeking a criminal trial against former militant Farooq Ahmad Dar, also known as Bitta Karate, in killing a Kashmiri Hindu, Satish Tickoo, more than three decades ago. 

The court listed the matter for further hearing on May 4. 

Advocate Utsav Bains has applied on behalf of Tickoo’s family. Bains said they plan to submit a video in which Dar can be seen confessing to the crime. The lawyer told NewsClick that the matter is being argued based on criminal law. 

The defence argued that there had been a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) file under Roots of Kashmir and that the case in Srinagar has no locus standi to which Bains said he is not a party to that case. 

“We argued that this is a matter solely of criminal law. Whether in a cognisable site, I can take the other side to a criminal trial. The other side discussed the PIL filed under Roots of Kashmir, to which I replied that we were not a party in that case. I have not filed an affidavit in the honourable Supreme Court. The PIL is different from criminal jurisprudence, so my right to a criminal trial does not get affected by it,” Bains added.  

Bains told reporters that the situation has improved in Kashmir, and the Tickoo family is hopeful about justice and closure this time, even as more than 30 years have passed since the Srinagar resident was killed on February 2, 1990. He was shot dead near his home in Habba Kadal locality, which was later claimed by members of the now-banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) outfit. Its top leaders, including chairman Yasin Malik, have been accused of targeted killings of Kashmir’s minority Pandit community in the early 1990s that many believe triggered a mass migration of the community members outside Kashmir valley. 

In the video, Dar admitted to killing Satish Tickoo because he was allegedly affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). After the group surrendered en masse under Malik, Dar later left the JKLF’s militant ranks but continued their politics for a separate Jammu and Kashmir. Dar is lodged in Tihar jail after being arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 in the ‘terror funding’ case. 

The lawyer said all efforts are being made under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) to get Dar to face trial for “killing the victim in cold blood”. 

Dar’s role was portrayed in the controversial movie "The Kashmir Files" by actor Chinamy Mandlekar. The film was released in March 2022. Later in August, the Jammu and Kashmir administration sacked four government employees, including Dar’s wife, a 2011-batch Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officer. 

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