An FIR was registered in Beerwah district of Jammu and Kashmir against 53 Rashtriya Rifles in connection with a video that showed a Kashmiri man tied to an Army vehicle during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election allegedly as a human shield against stone pelters.
The video, which surfaced on Friday, sparked a major controversy with even the former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah condemning the incident.
A police officer said the FIR has been registered under Sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject person to grievous hurt) of the Ranbir Penal Code.
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, on Sunday apprised National Security Advisor Ajit Doval of the security situation in Kashmir, amidst growing outrage in the Valley over the controversial video.
Rawat's meeting with Doval comes a day after he had separate deliberations with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor NN Vohra over the law and order situation in Kashmir during his visit to the state.
According to sources, the army officials told a probe team that they had received a call from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the local police guarding a polling station to save them from a mob that was out to lynch them.
The army convoy rushed in from Kandipura and tied 36-year-old Farooq Dar to a jeep, they said.
The incident, which took place on 9 April, was shot by unidentified persons on their mobiles and the video showing Dar being used as a shield against stone-pelting protesters was circulated on social media.
(With inputs from PTI)
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