Srinagar:
An aggressive opposition wants Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to resign over what it calls the custody death of a National Conference worker last week. Hundreds of workers of the main opposition party, the PDP, were lathicharged by the police in Jammu today as they took to the streets in protest.
Omar Abdullah's political fortunes, and indeed that of his father Farooq Abdullah, in the imminent future depends heavily on a man who allegedly paid 85 lakh rupees for a ministry in their government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Yousuf Ganderbali was present with two men at Omar Adullah's house on September 30. The Chief Minister said last week that he summoned the trio to investigate complaints that they were trading money for posts in his government. The "fixer" among them was reported to be 61-year-old Syed Yousuf Shah. Mr Ganderbali has so far refused to comment on whether Mr Shah promised to make him a minister. Abdul Salam Reshi, who was the third person at the meeting with Mr Abdullah, however told NDTV yesterday that he paid Rs 34 lakh to Mr Shah in return for a position on the legislative council. Mr Reshi also said that he had shared the terms of his deal with the Chief Minister two months ago, suggesting that Omar Abdullah waited too long to take any action.
The matter blew up when Mr Shah died, hours after that meeting. The Chief Minister had handed over the three men to the Crime Branch. Mr Reshi says that Mr Shah was vomiting in the police car that drove him away and that there was blood. A post-mortem report establishes that Mr Shah died of a heart attack and there were no external injuries.
Mr Shah's family alleges that he was tortured before he died. His son Syed Talib says his father's body bore marks of assault and that he believes that his father was involved in some sort of scuffle at the CM's residence. "When my father went to the CM's residence he was well, when he came out he was not," Mr Talib said, also claiming that the Inspector General of Police (crime) Raja Aejaz had told him that "whatever happened to my father happened at the Chief Minister's residence."
(J&K 'custody' death: 'My father was assaulted,' says Syed Yousuf's son)Top cop Raja Aejaz has denied having said this to Mr Talib. "Nothing has happened at Crime HeadQuarter and whatever (Talib has said) has happened at the CM's office is totally false, malicious and misleading. This statement was never made by me," he said.
(J&K 'custody' death: Top cop rejects allegation)The National Conference has dismissed allegations - including some leveled by the Opposition - that Mr Shah was tortured at the Chief Minister's home. "What proof does Syed Yousuf's son have to substantiate his claims that the Inspector General of Crime told him that his father was tortured at the Chief Minister's residence?" asked National Conference leader Mustafa Kamal today.
So what Mr Ganderbali says now about that fateful meeting will be crucial. He has refused so far to speak to the media; any accounts, he says, will be shared with a judicial commission that will investigate Mr Shah's death.
Yesterday, Dr Farooq Abdullah who is Omar's father and heads the National Conference, said, " The National Conference has never asked for money and it will remain the same in the future as well." That defense is provoked by Mr Reshi's charge that the Abdullahs knew that Mr Shah made illicit deals within their party. Mr Reshi recalls, "When I gave the money, I asked Yousuf, 'Does Omar know?' Yousuf said, 'Of course Omar knows.' I told Omar that clearly when I met him. Omar asked, "Why did you give it?' and I said 'I gave it as he introduced me to you and to Dr Farooq... I gave it to the man who was close to you'."