Jammu, March 24 (IANS) The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has stayed the trial of the seven police officials allegedly involved in the killing of a carpenter, Abdul Rehman Padder, in a staged shoot-out and passing him off as a militant.

The single bench of Justice Y.P. Nargotra of the Jammu wing of the high court passed these directions Friday on the Sessions Court of Srinagar on an application filed by Sudesh Parihar, wife of Hans Raj Parihar, the former senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Ganderbal, one of the seven facing trial on charges of murder.

The petitioner had pleaded that the case be transferred from Srinagar to Jammu in the interests of "free and fair trial". She had voiced fears in her petition that a free and fair trial in the hostile atmosphere in Srinagar was not possible for her husband.

The judge asked Additional Advocate General Baldev Singh Salathia to file objections in the next 10 days and till then advised the sessions court not to proceed with the trial till April 5.

"Till then the learned court shall not proceed with the trial," the judge observed.

Cases of murder and abduction were registered against Parihar, deputy superintendent of police Bhadhur Ram and five others after it was discovered that Padder, a carpenter by profession, had been picked up and allegedly killed in a staged encounter in Ganderbal, Kashmir.

He was passed on as a Pakistani terrorist, and the accused police officials had claimed reward money for "killing a terrorist".

However, investigations into the missing report filed by Padder's father, Mohammad Yusuf Padder, brought out the gory details of his killing. The exhumation of the body and DNA tests established that Padder was killed in a fake encounter and he was not a terrorist.

Parihar and six others were charge-sheeted in the court of district and sessions judge, Srinagar. Parihar and his family are worried that a hostile atmosphere in the Kashmir Valley against the police officials could hamper free and fair investigations, and thus made a plea for transfer of the case to Jammu.