[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

In the wake of recent attack by the Leh-Ladakh taxi mafia on innocent travellers,We will soon be filing a Writ Petition in the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir.

The advocate who will represent us is an alumnus of a premier law school and currently practices an an independent counsel based out of Srinagar.

The short term remedy would be to move to the the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate asking him to direct the jurisdictional SP to file an FIR and report the matter back to the CJM.We can explore this option if the affected traveller(s) come forward and this would be more of treating the symptom than the infection and the infection seem to be chronic.

I have sent our lawyer the link of the below mentioned thread and and copy of the resolution which was moved by the hooligans.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...axi-mafia.html.

I will come back to you all our next move.

Thanks.

Waseem Memon.
Drive Without Borders.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

The short term remedy would be to move to the the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate asking him to direct the jurisdictional SP to file an FIR and report the matter back to the CJM

It is good to know that you are working with a lawyer from Sri Nagar, but I feel the actual victims of this crime may have to do some part of the job, in order to get more traction to this whole case. Because other wise yourself or the lawyer would find it tough to prove why you got involved in this case at all. I don't know if this can be taken up as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

From what I could get from the other thread the incident happened in the suburbs of Leh Town (I could not detect the Karu roundabout in Google Maps). There are only three Police Stations in Leh Police Circle and they are at Leh, Nyoma and Nubra. Did not find any Dy.SP office there, so I guess only a Police Inspector runs the show in Leh. Leh police district comes under the Kashmir Region. The Leh police district is under the command of Mr. Sunil Gupta, IPS and seems to have an official e-mail address (sspleh-jk@nic.in). Perhaps the victims could first reach out to this officer on the e-mail ID, even though it may not be a formal complaint. But this should at least alert the senior most police officer in the district that some thing is seriously wrong (if his Special Branch men have not done that already.)

I understand that the victims did not bother to lodge the FIR. If the local police station is not keen on registering an FIR, there are other ways to get that done. But the initiative should still have to be taken by the victims (and not a third party).
1. Send a formal complaint to the Superintendent of Police via Registered Post with Acknowledgement due. E-Mail etc. is not considered as a formal complaint. This seems to be an easier option at present as the victims may have left the area by now. But what we may also need to check is how many times the complainant would have to make personal appearance in the jurisdictional court or at the police station. This aspect itself may force many people to forget filing the case and move on.
2. A complaint can be made to the Judicial Magistrate having jurisdiction in the area, but I think this has to be made in person. CJM for Leh District is Mr. Amit Sharma.
3. A formal complaint can also be lodged with the State Human Rights Commission, who may direct the police to do its job and start the investigations.

Here is a good link providing details about the First Information Report from Jaagruti.org. FIR is a very important report, which gets the huge legal machinery in India to work. In case a person makes an anonymous call (through telephone etc.), the Station House Officer (SHO) can still work on that information by filing an FIR suo-moto and then going to the spot and begin the investigations.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

It is good to know that you are working with a lawyer from Sri Nagar, but I feel the actual victims of this crime may have to do some part of the job, in order to get more traction to this whole case. Because other wise yourself or the lawyer would find it tough to prove why you got involved in this case at all. I don't know if this can be taken up as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

Actually no. Ladakh Taxi union has passed a resolution signed by their heads that they will not allow self drive rental cars. That is enough to file a writ. For example, when Trekking Mafia extorted 50K from trekkers, CJM came down heavily

From what I could get from the other thread the incident happened in the suburbs of Leh Town (I could not detect the Karu roundabout in Google Maps). There are only three Police Stations in Leh Police Circle and they are at Leh, Nyoma and Nubra. Did not find any Dy.SP office there, so I guess only a Police Inspector runs the show in Leh. Leh police district comes under the Kashmir Region. The Leh police district is under the command of Mr. Sunil Gupta, IPS and seems to have an official e-mail address (sspleh-jk@nic.in). Perhaps the victims could first reach out to this officer on the e-mail ID, even though it may not be a formal complaint. But this should at least alert the senior most police officer in the district that some thing is seriously wrong (if his Special Branch men have not done that already.)

The attack is a criminal matter. However, this thread is about the broader matter of "freedom",

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Ladakh Taxi union has passed a resolution signed by their heads that they will not allow self drive rental cars. That is enough to file a writ. For example, when Trekking Mafia extorted 50K from trekkers, CJM came down heavily

Thanks for bringing in the clarity here. So I guess, SILVERWOOD is more focusing on getting the non-official ban on self driven rental cars lifted. In that case, there was a scanned image of the so-called resolution signed by the taxi union leaders and religious leaders. May be using that as evidence a PIL can be filed? And what happened on the trekking mafia issue? Where did this happen? And what action did the CJM take?

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

I have some positive news to share with you all.

Our lawyer has confirmed that we can file a WP in the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and before that we need to write couple of letters/mails to concerned officials which i will do that today evening.(part of grievance redressal so that they dont act ignorant after the WP is filed).

I request the victims to send me the sequence of events(date wise) by email.

The draft will be ready in a weeks time and we should be able to file the WP in the first week of August.

Regards,

Waseem Memon
Drive Without Borders

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

We are aiming to file the WP by 5th August 2015 and the first draft should be ready in a weeks time.

I will keep you all updated on this.

Regards,

Waseem Memon
Drive Without Borders

[Dry Ice]

Waseem, please also share if we can help in any way.

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

The video evidence is more than handful and will go as annexure with our petition.The authorities are hand in glove with the hooligans and that is the sole reason why the Govt did not register a Suo Moto case even after the video went viral on the social media.

I will update you all soon on the developments.

Waseem Memon
Drive Without Borders

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

I have managed to speak to the Transport Commissioner of J&K on this issue.

He did feign ignorance as any seasoned bureaucrat would do and has assured me that he will take this up immediately.

I have sent him an email with all the required details.

I will follow up with him on Monday.

Waseem Memon
Drive Without Borders
__________________

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

I have sent an email to the Chief Executive Councillor,Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council on the same.

Lets wait for him to reply.

Regards,

Waseem Memon
Drive Without Borders

[SILVERWOOD]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

I will follow up with him on Monday.

Waseem Memon
Drive Without Borders
__________________

Tried calling him many times since morning, he did not take my call nor he has called back.

Waseem

[SwatiS]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

For example, when Trekking Mafia extorted 50K from trekkers, CJM came down heavily

But can you please give me more details about this trekking mafia issue. I would like to read about it.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by SwatiS

But can you please give me more details about this trekking mafia issue. I would like to read about it.

Here you go
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/42672313.cms

The CJM's order said, "I am shocked that the complainant who is also an Indian national has been forced to go through mental agony and torture for more than 15 days and the government agencies including police have slept over the matter. It appears to me that the police is in connivance with the ALTOA and its members. It is shocking to find that a private tour operator's association has demanded Rs 50,000 by issuing a written letter/order against the complainant and the police did not take cognizance of the matter."

The CJM added, "The situation appears to be lawlessness, tourists who are very much Indian nationals are being forced by extortion, bribe and illegal money for travelling to this part of the country and the government agencies are deliberately closing their eyes. It is more surprising and painful to note that Ladakh is a place known for its tourism and if such type of incidents is allowed to continue, it will give a bad name to the state of J&K where tourism is one of the prime attractions to the public. The matter is very serious and involves multiple complications but nevertheless the state agencies in general and police in particular are bound to protect the rights of citizens which have not been done in this case."

The CJM directed the SSP to immediately register an FIR against the accused and take necessary action, including providing security to the hikers' group.

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

I have recieved the the draft of the PIL this morning and it seems to be good.

We are all set to file it next week.

Waseem

[jaysmokesleaves]

http://indiahikes.in/what-is-happeni...h-is-not-okay/

http://indiahikes.in/times-india-rep...ction-awaited/