Terming Ranbir Panel Code as best law to deal with all cases including terror related issues, Senior PDP Leader and former Minister Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali has said that there is no need of extending the role of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Jammu & Kashmir state and State Police is well capable to investigate terror issues.Pertinently, in his address at the 7th foundation day of the NIA, Governor of J&K State NN Vohra has said the Union Home Ministry should take urgent steps to ensure that NIA’s legal framework is suitably modified to enable effective investigations in terror cases favouring inclusion of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) under the purview of NIA Act.
Reacting on the statement, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said that J&K is a special category state under Article 370 of Indian Constitution and no central law is applicable to the state till rectification from state legislatures. He said that NIA Act is central Act and the same cannot be extended to this state before state legislatures gave consent to it.Appreciating J&K Police for efficiently dealing terror issues, Zulfkar said that when J&K Police is doing excellent job by dealing terror cases under Ranbir Panel Code, there is no reason to underestimate our own police and law. He said that RPC was enacted in 1862 by the then Dogra Maharaja of the state and this law is working efficiently in this state for the last 154 years. It is pertinent to mention that under the NIA Act, the agency can take up investigation into any case registered under its scheduled offences without the consent of the state government concerned. But, since RPC is not part of the scheduled offences of the NIA, the agency cannot take up probe in any case registered under it on its own.
Pointing towards Armed Forces Special Power Act, Zulfkar said that all central laws which were experimented in J&K State did not fulfil the purpose and instead these laws arrived to add miseries for the people of this trouble torn state. He said that PDP has taken a stand on gradual revocation of AFSPA from this state, the question of extending of new central laws to this do not arise in this situation. He said that there is nothing bad in NIA Act and if there are some good provisions in the Act to deal terror issues, let these provisions be incorporated in Ranbir Panel Code. He added that when Indian Constitution itself has granted special status to this state, all of us must respect our Constitution and donot disturb or try to dilute this special status. He added that J&K state is having past experience of extension of central laws but maximum of these laws were misused which brought miseries to the people of this state. (CNS)