NC leader Hasnain Masoodi writes to HM, asks detainees under PSA in J&K to be released

National Conference leader and Member of Parliament, Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi today urged the Centre to release detainees lodged under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in various jails in and outside Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of COVID-19 threat.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the NC leader drew his attention towards the “plight of hundreds of detainees lodged under the PSA lodged in Ambedkar Nagar, Agra, Tihar and other jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.”

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"The detainees, it needs to be realized, are detained without charge and trial on mere suspicion, later found to be misplaced,” he said. 

Masoodi, who was a former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, said there are numerous judicial pronouncements commanding the government to lodge the detenue in a jail near his home so that the relatives and friends visit him and the detenue, due to lack of social interaction, is not exposed to mental trauma.

"The lockdown and restrictions imposed on travel and traffic, to combat the Covid-19 crisis, would make it impossible for the relatives to visit the detenue lodged a few hundred miles from his home,” he said. 

While appealing the Home Minister to direct revocation of detention orders against all the detainees lodged within and outside J&K," pending such revocation request you to direct immediate shifting of all the detainees lodged outside J&K back to J&K forthwith,” letter reads.

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It is pertinent to mention that, recently, Member Parliament Hasnain Masoodi released Rs one crore to combat COVID-19 threat in south Kashmir’s Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency. Reports suggest the amount was released on the directions of Party president Abdullah. The amount will be equally distributed to Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts.

Masoodi said he has asked concerned deputy commissioners to utilize this money for purchasing ventilators and other equipment needed to augment health infrastructure to combat coronavirus spread.

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