Jammu and Kashmir HC rejects govt request for judge

The Omar Abdullah government suffered a major setback on Saturday when Jammu and Kashmir High Court declined to spare a sitting judge for an inquiry into the mysterious death of National Conference worker Haji Syed Mohammad Yousuf on September 30 in the alleged ‘cash for berth’ scam.

The refusal came on a day when the anti-corruption court in Srinagar reserved the judgment in the case seeking CBI probe against chief minister Omar Abdullah, his father union minister Farooq Abdullah, junior home minister Nasir Aslam Wani and some senior police officials.

J&K law secretary GH Tantray said the high court has communicated to the government that it cannot spare a sitting judge for the inquiry. “Therefore we have sent a letter to the union law minister requesting him to spare a judge for the inquiry,” he said.

The government had requested the HC chief justice to appoint a sitting judge to conduct an inquiry into the circumstance leading to death of Syed Mohammad Yousuf of Loktipora-Bijbehera in Anantang district.