New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed has landed in a spot by claiming that separatist leader Masarat Alam Bhatt, who was freed from Jammu jail last week, was under “illegal” detention.
Bhatt intends to cite Sayeed in his habeas corpus petition pending in the J&K High Court, wherein he has sought compensation of Rs 50 lakh for his repeated detention under the state’s Public Safety Act. This will enable Bhatt to make out a case that Sayeed’s remark was tantamount to the government’s own admission of the illegality.
The petition, which will come up for hearing on April 7, refers to various Benches of the High Court quashing his detention, effected as many as 13 times during his 53-month incarnation without trial since October 18, 2010.
His last detention, ordered by the Jammu district magistrate on September 15, 2014, did not sustain in the Supreme Court as it was not approved by the Home Department within the stipulated period of 12 days.
This is a clear case of officials sleeping through Governor’s rule in Kashmir and Bhatt hopes to take advantage of this information coming into the public domain.
Bhatt has built his case on the strength of the J&K High Court awarding a compensation of Rs 50,000 to Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh for detaining him in the late 1980s and thus preventing him from attending the Assembly as an MLA.
Sources in the J&K government said Bhatt’s claim for compensation will be contested. However, Advocate General Ishaq Qadri, who has been asked to continue even though he had put in his papers after the Omar Abdullah government failed to get the mandate, said: “I have no brief from the new government on this subject.”
