SRINAGAR: Nearly three decades after he was last seen alive, a special court in Srinagar has declared Abdul Rashid Wani, who disappeared into military custody in 1997, legally dead.
The April 4, 2026, judgment by the Court of the Special Mobile Magistrate at Srinagar is a rare instance of judicial acknowledgment of an enforced disappearance in Kashmir. But buried within the court's own findings is a police inquiry that had already established that Wani was murdered in custody by a named army officer. That finding has led nowhere.
What Happened on July 7, 1997
According to the plaint filed by Wani's family, Abdul Rashid Wani was picked up by personnel of the 2/8 Gorkha Rifles at Rawalpora, Srinagar, on July 7, 1997. He was travelling in a vehicle bearing registration number 1674/JK01C along with one Farooq Ahmad Bhat when a military matador stopped them. Bhat was subsequently released. Wani never came home.
His wife, Farida Shabnum, recalls the incident with the clarity only a widow can sustain across decades. "Her husband was on a scooter. A civil matador carrying personnel of the 2/8 Gorkha Regiment stopped them and kidnapped him," she told the court in her affidavit. She does not remember the colour of the vehicle or its number.
Their sons, Junaid Rashid Wani and Arsalan Rashid Wani, were approximately 10 and 11 years old, respectively. Both testified that their father has been missing for more than 28 years, and that despite exhausting every legal and institutional avenue available to them, they have no idea where he is or what became of him.
A Family's 28-Year Legal Struggle
The family did not accept the disappearance in silence. Almost immediately after Wani's detention, Farida Shabnum approached the Jammu and Kashmir High Court filing a habeas corpus petition, No. 139/1997 under Section 491 of the CrPC, seeking production of her husband. The High Court directed the state to register a criminal case and ordered an inquiry to be conducted by the Sessions Judge, Srinagar.
That inquiry into what was classified as a custodial disappearance resulted in the registration of FIR No. 180/2002 at Police Station Parimpora, Srinagar, under Section 364 of the Ranbir Penal Code (kidnapping). The police investigated. The case was ultimately closed with a final report. No one was brought to justice.
A statutory notice was served on the defendants, but no relief was granted, compelling the plaintiffs to file a civil suit in March 2024, seeking a declaration of death and a mandatory direction to issue a death certificate.
It took the court over two years of proceedings, including the examination of five witnesses, cross-examination by government counsel, and resolution of preliminary legal objections, to deliver its verdict on April 4, 2026.
Denial Without Evidence
The Union Territory administration, represented by standing counsel Basharat Majid, contested the suit on procedural grounds. The government argued that the suit had been filed "suppressing material facts and suggesting false, fabricated facts". It further contended that declaring a person dead on the basis of unknown whereabouts fell outside the defendants' domain, that there was no cause of action against them, and that the suit should be dismissed for non-joinder of necessary parties.
Crucially, however, the government led no witnesses of its own. After the plaintiffs closed their evidence, the defendants' counsel informed the court that they did not wish to produce any witnesses. Their right to do so was formally closed.
This is a legally significant silence. Every factual assertion made by the family - that Wani was taken by the Gorkha Rifles, that he was never released, that he has not been heard of in 28 years - stood unrebutted in evidence.
The Legal Basis and Presumption of Death
The court's judgment rests on a well-established legal doctrine — the presumption of death under Section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act (now the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023). The provision holds that once a person has not been heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him if he were alive, the law presumes that person to be dead. The burden of rebutting this presumption shifts to those who assert that he is still alive.
The court found that every element required to trigger this presumption was satisfied.
Wani disappeared on July 7, 1997, nearly 29 years before the judgment. His wife and children, described by the court as "the most natural persons who would have heard from Abdul Rashid Wani had he been alive," testified under oath that they had received no communication from him since the date of his disappearance.
The court therefore held that the statutory presumption of death applied squarely, and decreed accordingly, declaring Abdul Rashid Wani legally dead and directing the Registrar of Births and Deaths of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to issue a death certificate in favour of the family.
The Accountability Void
What elevates this case from a routine declaration of presumed death to something far more disturbing is what the court's own findings reveal, almost in passing, about what actually happened to Abdul Rashid Wani.
In its analysis of Issues 1, 3 and 4, the court quoted directly from the inquiry report of the Sessions Judge, Srinagar, which had been submitted pursuant to the High Court's directions. That report, which formed the basis for FIR No. 180/2002 under Section 364 RPC, stated the following:
"It came to fore that Abdul Rashid Wani S/o Abdul Samad Wani R/o Madina Colony Bemina Srinagar was taken into custody by the army along with one more person namely Farooq Ahmad Bhat. It further reveals that actually, the accused (Major V.P Yadav) had murdered Abdul Rashid Wani in his custody and had disposed of his corpse."
This is a finding that emerged from a formal judicial inquiry ordered by the High Court and subsequently reflected in a police final report. A named accused, an army major, was identified as having killed Abdul Rashid Wani while he was in custody and disposed of his body.
The police submitted a final report that, per the court's own reading, "reflects that Abdul Rashid Wani has been killed in the custody." The case was then closed.
The court's judgment is confined to the civil relief sought - a declaration of death and a death certificate. It is not a criminal court; it cannot try Major V.P. Yadav. But the judgment's recitation of these facts throws into sharp relief the complete absence of any criminal accountability for what the state's own inquiry described as a custodial murder.
Major V.P. Yadav is named in judicial and police records as the person responsible for killing Abdul Rashid Wani. There is no public record of his prosecution, conviction, or even formal charge.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which governed military operations in Jammu and Kashmir during the period in question and continues to apply across much of the region, requires prior sanction from the central government before any serving or retired armed forces personnel can be prosecuted for acts carried out in the line of duty. That sanction has, in the overwhelming majority of such cases, never been granted.
Wani's family spent over 28 years not knowing whether their husband and father was alive or dead. At the end of it all, what they have received is a piece of paper confirming what a judicial inquiry established over two decades ago: that Abdul Rashid Wani is dead, killed in the custody of the Indian Army.
What they do not have is justice.
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