Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) head, has been shifted to her residence in Srinagar, where she will continue to remain under detention, an official order issued on Tuesday said.
The government order said the Peoples Democratic Party leader is being moved from a subsidiary jail on MA Road in Srinagar to her Fairview residence that will serve as a subsidiary jail.
According to an official order issued by the home department of the Union Territory, “The government hereby orders the change of place of lodgement of Ms Mehbooba Mufti… to subsidiary jail, Fairview, Gupkar Road, Srinagar, with immediate effect.”
Mehbooba Mufti, who was charged under the Public Safety Act, has been under detention since August 5 last year, when the Constitution’s Article 370 was scrapped and Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two Union territories.
Mufti’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, tweeted to thank the media and ask for privacy.
“My gratitude to the media in Kashmir for their concern & well wishes. May I please humbly request that you give the family privacy as we wait for her to come home today. Please remember this isn’t a release & the house has been declared as a subsidiary jail,” she said.
While two other former chief ministers and National Conference leaders, Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, were released earlier, Mufti continues to remain under detention.
Reacting to the development, former CM Omar Abduallah said that his political rival should be released and the PSA slapped on her should be revoked.
“@MehboobaMufti must be set free. Shifting her home while continuing to keep her detained is a cop out (sic),” Abdullah tweeted reacting to the news of her being shifted.
Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti, too, has moved the Supreme Court challenging her mother’s detention and leaders across the political spectrum in J&K have sought the release of Mufti and a host of other political leaders including Bilal Lone, Shah Feasal and Naeem Akhtar.
The Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC) chief spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu also commented on the same and said the continued detention of Mufti, and JKPC chairman Sajad Lone – who is under house arrest – and other mainstream politicians was “authoritarian”.
A three-judge bench had issued a notice to the Jammu and Kashmir administration seeking its response on the plea and posted the matter for a hearing on March 18. However, the petition was not taken up for hearing due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Habeas corpus is a writ seeking production of a person supposed to be in illegal detention before a court.
