Jammu, August 12: The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at nine locations across Jammu and Kashmir as part of its investigation into the 1990 killing of renowned Kashmiri Pandit poet and writer Sarwanand Kaul Premi and his 27-year-old son, Virender Kaul.
The case is registered under FIR No. 45/1990 at Police Station Dooru in Anantnag district. The investigation was later taken over by the SIA, officials said.
According to officials, the searches were carried out at premises of suspects and other locations believed to be connected with the case. The operation was aimed at gathering documents, evidence and other material that could assist investigators in identifying those involved and establishing the sequence of events.
Premi, 65, and his son Virender were allegedly killed by militants in May 1990 in their native village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Following the killings, the Kaul family left Kashmir within a week.
Premi was a noted poet, writer and translator who authored more than three dozen books. His literary contributions included translating the Bhagavad Gita into Urdu, the Ramayana into Kashmiri, and Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali.
The latest searches are part of the SIA’s wider efforts to investigate several long-pending militancy-related cases dating back to the 1990s and bring them to a logical conclusion.
The action comes more than a month after the SIA filed a chargesheet in another long-pending case related to the killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat.
Details of any recoveries or other findings from Wednesday’s searches are awaited.
