NC chief Farooq Abdullah detained under PSA act; attracts strong remarks from opposition parties

New Delhi: National Conference chief, Farooq Abdullah, who has been under house arrest since August 5, after the abrogation of article 370, has now been detained under the public safety act. He could be detained for up to two years. PSA ( public Safety Act) allows the government to detain any person without trial if the person in the case in any manner could undermine security of the state or could interfere with the maintenance of public order.

Surprisingly, this detention order came on Sunday, just after a day when Supreme Court acting on a petition seeking the release of Farooq Abdullah from house arrest, sought a response from center as well as state administration in this matter. It appears that Center may have faced embarrassment if it had to ki justify arrest in the court, therefore, Home ministry acted quickly to detain Farooq Abdullah under PSA.
Now, MHA has detained Farooq Abdullah at his residence under PSA and his house is declared as subsidiary jail.

MDMK chief Vaiko moved the habeas corpus petition in Supreme Court seeking NC (National Conference) chief to be produced before court, so that his release could be secured by proving his detention unlawful. He even said that Farooq Abdullah should be allowed to attend the ‘peaceful and democratic’ conference being held in Chennai on 15 September to celebrate the birthday of former Tamilnadu CM CN Annadurai.

Habeas is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention. A three bench judges including Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde and SA Nazeer was hearing the habeas corpus plea of Rajya Sabha MP and MDMK leader Vaiko.

However, Solicitor General Tusar Mehta on behalf of the government contested that Vaiko had no ground to file habeas corpus as he was not a family member of Farooq Abdullah. Nevertheless, Supreme Court sought answer from Centre and State administration over this matter and thus came the detention of Farooq Abdullah from MHA under PSA to bypass Supreme Court.

On his detention under PSA, attracted strong reactions from opposition parties with Congress calling it as misfortune event for the country, whereas All India Majilis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi slammed the government for messing up everything in Kashmir. “A draconian Act is being used against an 80-year-old [Abdullah]…it proves the Center has messed up everything there [Kashmir],” Owaisi said. He even commented on PM’s meeting with Abdullah on August and said, “ The PM met Abdullah and suddenly he became a national threat?” He Questioned Amit Shah too, “Amit Shah said in parliament Abdullah was not detained or arrested, now what he will say?”

Whereas, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad condemned this event as utterly unfortunate and said, “ I strongly condemn it. It is most unfortunate that a (former) chief minister of one of the oldest political parties in Kashmir(has been detained).”

India, after the annulment of article 370 which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, beefed up security in the state as well as many restrictions too were imposed. In addition to that many prominent leaders of the state too were put in house arrest so as to prevent any untoward incident in Kashmir.