Mehbooba Mufti’s detention under PSA extended by 3 months

The Public Safety Act (PSA) against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was extended by three months on Tuesday, officials said.

In a brief order, the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir administration handed over the continuation of her custody at her residence, hours before her present term under the Public Safety Act was to expire.

Mehbooba Mufti was initially detained on August 5, 2019, 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, Mehbooba Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7 as a partial relief to her.

Mehbooba 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, Mehbooba Mufti was slapped with the Public Safety Act along with Omar Abdullah, who was released in March. Farooq Abdullah had been released early last month.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bungalow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk.

The daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija,, had 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 COVID-19 outbreak.

Habeas corpus is a writ seeking production of a person supposed to be in illegal detention before a court