Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday extended the detention of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti by three months under the Public Safety Act.
Mufti was among hundreds of people who were taken into preventive custody hours ahead of the Centre revoking the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir and breaking the state into two union territories on August 5 last year.
The current detention order of the former chief minister was expiring on August 5 this year.
In a brief order, the district magistrate of Srinagar handed over the continuation of her custody at her residence, days before her present term under the PSA was to expire.
According to an order issued by the Home Department, Mufti will continue to remain under detention for another three months at her official residence at Fairview Bungalow, which has been declared a subsidiary jail.
"The law enforcing agencies have recommended further extension in the period of detention and on examination, the same is considered to be necessary," the order read.
Most of the other mainstream politicians, including Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, have been released from custody.
According to the order issued by the Principal Secretary to the J&K government Shaleen Kabra, "in the exercise of powers conferred by section 8(1)(a)(i) read with clause (a) of subsection (1) of section 18 of the J&K PSA 1978, the government hereby directs that the period of detention of Ms Mehbooba Mufti d/o Late Mufti Mohd Sayed R/o Bijbehara A/P Nowgam, Srinagar be extended for a further period of three months and she may be lodged in Subsidiary Jail Fairview, Gupkar Road, Srinagar."
She was initially detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities that were designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7 as a partial relief to her.
Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.
Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 5 this year, she was slapped with the PSA along with Omar Abdullah, who was later released in March.
Earlier, Mufti was lodged in a government guest house in Chashma Shahi and a bungalow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk.
Daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija has moved a habeas corpus petition before the Supreme Court in February challenging her mother’s detention.
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.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir administration today released People's Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone from house detention after nearly a year.
According to the officials, the curbs on the movement of Lone was lifted today on the occasion of the Eid festival. He was under house arrest at his official residence at Srinagar's Church Lane since February.
