The SIA had in December last year charged Mr. Qayoom with murder as an act of terrorism
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Wednesday ordered for the release of prominent journalist and political commentator Majid Hyderi after quashing his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Mr. Hyderi was arrested by the police in September 2023 on charges of extortion and defamation. He was subsequently detained under PSA, a stringent preventive law in force in the erstwhile state of J&K since 1978 and which allows the authorities to detain a person for up to two years without charge or trial to prevent him or her from acting harmfully against "the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order". Mr Hyderi has remained lodged in Jammu's Kot Bhalwal jail.
Amnesty International had accused the government of continuing to misuse the “draconian” PSA and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to carry out arbitrary detentions of its critics including journalists Majid Hyderi and Sajad Gul and lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom. Various Indian press freedom advocates too had expressed their concern over Mr. Hyderi’s arrest and while terming it politically motivated argued that it was a manifestation of the growing challenges faced by journalists in J&K.
Justice V. K. Chatterjee, nullified the PSA order, clearing the way for Mr. Hyderi’s release, said the scribe’s counsel Muhammad Yusuf Bhat.
Meanwhile, High Court has upheld the detention of former president of the J&K High Court Bar Association (Kashmir chapter) and separatists ideologue Mr. Qayoom by the J&K State Investigation Agency (SIA) and rejected the arguments pleaded in a habeas corpus petition that sought his release.
The SIA had in December last year charged Mr. Qayoom with murder as an act of terrorism. He was earlier detained by the agency accusing him of being involved in the conspiracy to kill a fellow lawyer Babar Qadri.
The SIA in a 340-page supplementary chargesheet against Mr. Qayoom in the Babar Qadri murder case filed in a special NIA court in Jammu had claimed that the in-depth investigation conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) revealed that he (Mr. Qayoom) “had an inimical relation with the deceased and got him eliminated through the terrorists of The Resistance Front (TRF) and their handlers in Pakistan by hatching a criminal conspiracy.” The J&K police claims that the TRF is an off-shoot of proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Mr. Qayoom, 81, one of the most prominent and well-known lawyers who served as the president of the JKHCBA for twenty terms between 1986 and 2019 was arrested by the SIA in June last year after it had “collected substantial evidence against him.”
The SIA counsel strongly opposed the habeas corpus petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Sakal Bhushan and asserted that the agency had during the investigations gathered "sufficient oral, documentary and digital evidence" implicating Mr. Qayoom in the case. After hearing him and the counter arguments, Justice Vinod Chatterjee Koul dismissed the petition and upheld the arrest of Mr. Qayoom and his subsequent remands granted by the Special Court designated under NIA Act Jammu.
