On May 11, 2006, after investigating a case the CBI filed murder charges against five serving army personnel from the 7 Rashtriya Rifles unit in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Srinagar. The CBI argued this was a case of ‘cold blooded murder’ and were not actions taken in the course of performing official duties, and so the perpetrators could not be protected.The Indian Army blocked the prosecution of five army personnel using AFSPA. The Supreme Court of India upheld the army’s action and asked it to decide whether it wanted to court martial them instead.In September 2012, over twelve years after the murder of the five civilians in Pathribal, the Indian Army chose to bring the case before the military justice system and began proceedings in a general court-martial. On January 24, 2014 the Indian Army said it was dismissing all charges against five of its personnel due to a lack of evidence.According to the closure report filed in the Srinagar Chief Magistrate’s Court, the Indian Army did not even conduct a trial but instead dismissed the charges through a pre-trial procedure.In another case, in Kashmir’s Machhil soldiers were convicted of murdering three civilians but freed nonetheless by an army tribunal without explanation. On February 23, 1991, soldiers of 4 Rajputana Rifles came into the villages of Kunan and Poshpora in the remote northern district of Kupwara. The army asked the men to assemble outside and then entered their homes.
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