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CPI(M) leader objects to handcuffing of AAP MLA Mehraj Malik, seeks apology
Terms Public Safety Act a draconian and unjustified law, seeks apology for humiliation of MLA, who was paraded in handcuffs allegedly in violation of the MLAs’ rights.
CPI(M) MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Friday expressed dismay over Aam Aadmi Party’s Doda East legislator Mehraj Malik being paraded in handcuffs in a hospital in Kathua on Thursday and appealed to the chief minister Omar Abdullah and members of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly to come out with a strong statement and demand an apology from the authorities concerned.
The AAP MLA, who has been in jail under the Public Safety Act (PSA) since September 8, was taken to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Kathua in handcuffs by policemen on Thursday for a medical check-up. The video of the handcuffed MLA has been shared widely on social media.
Addressing mediapersons in Jammu, Tarigami said, “One of our sitting legislators, Mehraj Malik, has been imprisoned under PSA. Using PSA against a legislator is unjust and unlawful. If there were FIRs against him, let the police investigate and allow law to take its course. Let the courts do their work. If there is something wrong, the law will take its course and if not, he should be released, but why was PSA invoked against a legislator?”
Describing the PSA as a draconian law, Tarigami, who is the Kulgam MLA, recalled how he himself has been its victim. “We know how it is used. There is no justice and no accountability. In our opinion, Malik’s arrest under PSA is totally unjustified. Yesterday, in a shocking incident he was paraded in handcuffs in the hospital.”
The MLA called it a “blatant violation of rights of a legislator in broad daylight”.
“There are still institutions holding the flag of the Constitution aloft. The Supreme Court is one of them,” he said.
Referring to former Supreme Court justice VR Krishna Iyer, who called handcuffing a violation of an individual’s dignity, he said: “Justice Iyer had ruled out even handcuffing convicted criminals and called it violation of dignity, an inhumane and degraded act. You can’t humiliate a prisoner, what to talk of a legislator. It’s shameful and highly unacceptable,” he said.
“Handcuffing Malik is sheer humiliation for the entire legislature and the whole set of law. Therefore, I strongly protest and appeal to all law makers and the administration to withdraw charges against Malik under the PSA and release him. Those who handcuffed and publicly humiliated him must apologise. That is our elementary demand from the government,” he said.
Tarigami said that he would meet the chief minister and appeal to the government to come out with a strongly worded statement on the unpleasant development. “We can only demand from the rest of my colleagues that they should step in and the elected government must record its strong protest,” he added.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court is scheduled to conduct a final hearing into the habeas corpus petition of the AAP MLA on December 18.
Earlier, he appealed to the Centre that people of J&K, who have been lodged in various jails under PSA, outside Jammu and Kashmir, be brought back to prisons in the Jammu region.
“Doing so would enable their families to at least meet them. It is a humane and legitimate approach,” he said.
He recalled that the family of separatist leader Shabir Shah had approached several legislators, including him, with a similar request. “We are the largest democracy in the world. We request the government to review the issue with a humane approach,” he said.
