The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday reopened the case of the killing of retired Kashmiri Pandit judge Neelkanth Ganjoo by militants in 1989 and asked people to depose before the SIA to complete the investigation.
“In order to unearth the larger criminal conspiracy behind the murder of retired judge Neelkanth Ganjoo three decades ago, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), through a communique, has appealed to all persons familiar with facts or circumstances of this murder case to come forward and share any account of events which has direct or indirect bearing on the investigation of the instant case,” an official spokesman said.
The communique said the identity of all such persons shall be kept completely hidden and protected. All useful and relevant information shall be suitably rewarded, it added.
Ganjoo, who had sentenced JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat to death in a murder case, was shot dead outside the J&K High Court in Srinagar on November 4, 1989. His killing was among the first in the series of killings of Pandits in Kashmir.
The killing spree started with Bharatiya Jan Sangh leader Tika Lal Taploo at Habbakadal in Srinagar on September 13, 1989. It was followed by the killing of a local Pandit woman, Sheela Tikoo, on November 1, 1989. Advocate Prem Nath Bhat was gunned down in Anantnag on December 27. These killings resulted in the migration of Kashmiri Pandits to several parts of the country.
