No one touched Yousuf, no reason to resign: Omar

The case of the Jammu and Kashmir ‘custody’ death looks like it is only going to get murkier. The latest to jump on the bandwagon accusing Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah of being responsible for the death of 61-year-old National Conference worker Haji Syed Yousuf in ‘custody’, is none other than the deceased’s son, Talib Hussain.

Speaking to CNN-IBN editor-in-chief, Rajdeep Sardesai, in an interview on Thursday, Hussain implicated Abdullah and accused him of hiding the truth. He claims to have seen marks on his father’s face and says he even has pictures of the “torture marks”.

“What Omar is saying is a complete lie and no basis to it. There were torture marks on his (Yousuf’s) face. I believe he was physically tortured there (Omar’s house)” Hussain said.

Claiming that the Inspector General told him that Yousuf was beaten at Omar’s residence, he has sought a CBI probe. “We don’t believe in any probe that will take place in Kashmir. If there is a probe, it should be done by the CBI,” he told CNN-IBN.

The Inspector General has denied he has ever made such a statement.

The Opposition too has been blazing guns at Abdullah. They created a ruckus in the Assembly on 3 October and demanded the suspension of the Question Hour to discuss the matter. Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone and PDP MLA Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain traded charges against each other and got into a spat before the session had to be adjourned. But, the Opposition keeps the pressure on the government up.

“The case is now becoming so clear – the evidence is coming from all sides, including from Omar Abdullah (which he gave in an interview), that now it remains only for the dead to come back from the grave and tell him what happened with him,” Naeem Akhtar, PDP spokesperson said.

Hussain’s father Yousuf, a party worker from Anantnag, died on 30 September allegedly in police custody while being investigated for a cheating case by J&K’s crime branch. The 61-year-old had been summoned to Abdullah’s residence the previous day (Thursday) to explain complaints received by Abdullah about Yousuf having allegedly taken money from two other NC workers for getting one ministership and another into the Legislative Council.

After the meeting Yousuf was handed over to the Crime Branch by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. He died the following day.

Earlier in the day, an eye witness and one of the bribe givers, Abdul Salam Reshi, who was also handed over to the police told CNN-IBN that Yousuf had money deals with Abdullah and that he was beaten at the CM’s office-cum-residence. The deceased, he alleged, had taken him to Abdullah offering a MLC position in return for money.

He alleged that a ministership in the state came at a cost of Rs 1 crore and a MLC seat at Rs 50 lakhs. “I was told to give party fund if I want to become an MLC. Then, I didn’t know that they charge money for seats,” Reshi said.

Reshi, who claimed to have seen the ongoings inside the CM’s house through a window from outside, said that when Yousuf emerged from the CM’s house “he looked like a dead body” and was vomitting.

The state says Yousuf died due to cardiac arrest.

Home Commissioner BR Sharma told the Economic Times that the Crime Branch had registered a first investigation report and was investigating the case. He also said that the cause of death as per the death certificate was a cardio-respiratory arrest.

“X-rays of the body show no abnormality and the time of the death in the report has been shown as less than 12 hours prior to the completion of the postmortem and handing over of the body at 7.20 PM on September 30,” Sharma told the Economic Times.

The chief minister, meanwhile, has refuted all allegations saying there was no reason to resign for having done the right thing.

“I see no reason why I should resign either as home minister or as chief minister for having done the right thing. For having taken cognisance of serious allegation of bribe taking,” Abdullah told CNN-IBN.

“I have done nothing wrong in handing over, both, the bribe giver and the bribe taker to the police for further investigations,” he said. “Nobody laid a finger on the deceased as long as he was in my residence and I would like to believe no one laid a finger on him after he left my residence,” he said.

Abdullah said that Yousuf had admitted to taking the bribe, following which he called the Inspector General Crime to come to his house to take Yousuf away for further probe.

Rebuffing allegations made by Hussain, Yousuf’s son, that his father’s body has “torture marks”, Abdullah said, “The preliminary post mortem report states categorically that there were no injury marks on the body of the deceased.”

Abdullah has said he has nothing to hide and has announced a judicial investigation into the case, requesting the chief justice to nominate a sitting judge for the inquiry.

“Subverting the truth doesn’t help me. I want the truth to come out. I want these people who were witness to what happened in that room to to come out and tell the judicial enquiry exactly what they saw and heard that was happening there,” Abdullah told CNN-IBN.

Omar Abdullah has been embroiled in one controversy after another in the past few weeks. His separation from his wife, his government’s disclosure of the names hundreds of rape victims in the state last Wednesday for which he later apologised and now the death of a party worker.

While the bloodshed in J&K has considerably subsided over the past few years, political parties in the state are in no mood to relent. They smell blood. And, it seems like they are going to take this all the way.

Watch Yousuf’s son accusing Omar Abdullah of being responsible for his father’s death: