Kashmir woman in NIA custody tests COVID-19 positive

Srinagar: A Srinagar woman who, along with her husband, was arrested in Delhi earlier this year and put in NIA custody recently, has tested positive for coronavirus.

Hina Bashir Beigh, as per Hindustan Times, has been admitted at a Delhi hospital.

Beigh (39) and her husband Jahanzaib Sami, residents of Srinagar, were arrested by Delhi Police’s Special Cell from Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area in the first week of March for their alleged “links with ISKP”. The also allegedly instigated protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the police said.

Sami, who is an IT professional working for a UK based company, had shifted to Delhi temporarily in September last year as he was unable to work due to the internet shutdown in Kashmir. Beigh, who has a bachelors in IT and masters in business administration, is in custody along with her husband.

“They were in Tihar jail under judicial custody but on 28 May the NIA had got the custody to question her,” The Kashmir Walla quoted Sehrish Sami, her sister-in-law, saying over the phone. “She [Beigh] was in Tihar until ten days ago,” the report added.

As per reports, the NIA informed the duty magistrate at Patiala House on Sunday that Beigh has been found “positive” for coronavirus.

“I urged the court that Beigh should be immediately referred to a hospital and permission be granted for her to talk to me regularly, which was not allowed earlier,” Beigh’s lawyer M S Khan was quoted saying.

The court has referred her to Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) hospital for treatment.

The family was informed about this by their lawyer in Delhi.

Beigh had moved to Delhi on 26 October, after getting married on 6 October 6, and the couple was living in a rented flat in Delhi’s Okhla area.  The family has rubbished all charges against the couple.