KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Police Tuesday re-arrested Muslim League chairman and Hurriyat Conference (G) leader, Masarat Alam Bhat in the Kot Balwal jail days after High Court quashed his preventive detention on grounds that it was “undemocratic and repugnant” to the rule of law.
According to Muslim League, spokesman, Masarat Alam was taken to some unknown destination today.
Masarat was arrested on April 17 this year. He was shifted to Kot Balwal jail Jammu after slapped with Public Safety Act (PSA).
“The Public Safety Act (PSA) on Masarat Alam was quashed by the High Court recently and when a copy of the court order was produced before the jail authorities they freed Masarat Alam,” Muslim League spokesman, said adding “a police party however, re-arrested him in the jail premises and took him away to some unknown destination.”
Pertinently, a bench of Justice Hasnain Masoodi, while quashing detention under Public Safety Act against Alam, noted that preventive detention was undemocratic and repugnant to rule of law. “It violates fundamental principle of Criminal Jurisprudence providing for presumption of innocence of accused till he is proved guilty on fair and transparent trail.
“It not only runs contrary to Constitutional ethos but also bruises the Gandhian thought, that forms weft and warp of our socio-political fabric.”
Condemning the police action the spokesman said that after failing to prove allegations against Masarat Alam in the court, police are trying to hide their humiliation.
