Families of several youth taken into preventive detention this year under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows detention up to two years without a trial, allege their kin were “shifted to outside jails and held incommunicado’‘ in violation of the provisions of the Act.
“I am not sure if my elder brother is alive or dead. I haven’t heard from him since the Shopian police called him in March this year, as soon as he had finished his lunch that day. We were told he has to stay in the police station for a night. Then days passed by and he was booked under the PSA and first shifted to Kot Balwal, Jammu, and then outside,” Amir Hussian Lone, 19, younger brother of arrested Bilal Lone, told The Hindu.
As per official records, Bilal has been shifted to the Prayagraj Jail, Uttar Pradesh. A resident of Shopian’s Heff Shirmal in south Kashmir, Bilal, who worked in local apple orchards, was first arrested in 2016 for allegedly participating in violent street protests. He was behind bars for around 45 days. However, the then J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti later announced a general amnesty to those facing cases during the 2016 street protests, sparked by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani. Around 4,327 cases were withdrawn against those who participated in the protests.
Bilal, on his release in 2016, decided to live “a normal life”. He got married and is a father of two kids now. “They keep blabbering ‘Baba, Baba’ and just want to have a glimpse of their father,” Bilal’s younger brother said.
Bilal, who was the eldest in the family, lost his father to cancer this year. “He had raised a loan for the father’s treatment. We have been busy tending our father for the past two years. Now the bank officials visit us for the instalments. Only Bilal, who was our earning hand, can repay. We are living a hell,” Amir said. “I don’t have money to even attend his hearings in a Srinagar court, leave aside travelling outside,” he added.
One unofficial estimate suggested around 200 youth faced detentions under the PSA this year. Most of them were those who had past involvement in street protests. With most jails running full in the Union Territory, the Lieutenant Governor's administration shifts those detained under the PSA to jails outside J&K.
Incommunicado after shifting to outside jails
At least three such families, where their arrested kins have gone incommunicado after getting shifted to outside jails, have decided to knock the doors of the Chief Justice of India.
Raja Begum from Srinagar's Parimpora does not know about the whereabouts of his son Arif Ahmad Sheikh since he was shifted to the Central Jail, Varanasi. Similarly, Sonullah, father of arrested Mohammad Mehraj-ud-Din from Bandipora's Gund Jahangir, Hajin, went incommunicado since he was arrested on April 08, 2022.
Petition in Supreme Court
The families have decided to file a petition before the Supreme Court.
“We will plead for an order or direction to the respondents to make arrangements to allow the families, friends, counsels of the detainees to have access to communication,” Syed Musaib, a lawyer in J&K High Court, told The Hindu.
Contact with outside world, a basic right
Lawyer Musaib said the plea will seek that the authorities “should give full effect to the enumerated rights provided for in the relevant statutes applicable to the detainees, including those provided for in the relevant jail manuals”.
“The detenues detained under the provisions of J&K Public Safety Act, 1978 (Preventive Detention Law) are being arbitrarily shifted from local district and central jails within J&K to the jails of other states of the country. The families are incapacitated in communicating with the detenues and also the detenues are unable to avail effective legal remedies as guaranteed under the constitution,” Mr. Musaib said.
He said a detenue being entitled to the basic right, among other rights, has the right to contact the outside world and family during the period of detention.
Till 2018, no detenue, who was a resident of J&K, was shifted outside. However, since 2020, detenues detained under the PSA, were transferred outside J&K by virtue of the amendment in the Act in 2020.
