Sanjay Singh detained illegally, message it sends out not good: Omar

Srinagar, Sep 11 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh was detained illegally here.

Singh, along with other AAP members arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday after party MLA from Doda, Mehraj Malik, was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act.

Police on Thursday foiled a protest march of AAP against the detention by not allowing the party members, including Singh, to move out of the Circuit House here.

"Use of the PSA against MLA (Doda) is wrong. And now you have aggravated the mistake by illegally detaining a Rajya Sabha member. Have you served any order of detention on him? "This is not good for democracy in Jammu and Kashmir and the message it sends out also is not good. Those who are doing it should reconsider their actions," Abdullah told reporters here.

He said if anyone had an objection to behaviour of the MLA, the issue could have been taken up with the assembly Secretariat.

"If it is his behaviour that you have an objection to, it could have been taken up with the Assembly secretariat or the Speaker. But the use of PSA is wrong," he added.

On his meeting with Malik's father, Abdullah said he assured him of all help.

"My advice to the AAP leaders is to engage a lawyer who understands the PSA and has dealt with such cases. This law is not in force anywhere in the country except Jammu and Kashmir. If they bring a lawyer from outside, it will take him time to understand the law.

"I have spoken to some lawyers ... I myself had to fight against the PSA in 2020. I engaged a lawyer here who contested the case in the Supreme Court," he added.

Abdullah lashed out at the media for reporting the detention of political leaders as a claim rather than a fact.

"You are asking questions as if Sanjay Singh is lying. It is not his claim but the truth. Repeatedly the channels and newspapers say that we (politicians) claim.... This is not a claim. This is the truth," he said.

Abdullah recalled the events of July 13 and July 14 and asserted that those were not claims but the reality.

"On July 13, we did not claim that we had been detained, we were detained. On July 14, we did not claim manhandling, we were manhandled. And today also is a reality that Sanjay Singh has been detained. What are the reasons? Only those behind the decision can say it," he said.

Abdullah said while the LG administration, which controls the law and order machinery in Jammu and Kashmir, claims that everything is fine in Jammu and Kashmir.

"They claim that the atmosphere is good and people are happy but the reality is that they do nothing but highhandedness. They did it with us, they used the wrong law to arrest Mehraj Malik because there is no reason for the arrest," he said. PTI MIJ ZMN