AN activist who led a delegation to a public hearing held by one of the advisors of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has been detained for apparently rubbing Ganderbal Deputy Commissioner Krittika Jyotsna the wrong way.
At the durbar held at Safapora village in Ganderbal on June 10, Sofi, who led a group of five-six members of a civil society group, told advisor Baseer Ahmad Khan that people could have expectations from local officials like him and seek answers from them. On the other hand, what could he hope from officers who belong to outside the region, Sofi told Khan, Indian Express reported.
Jyotsna, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh-cadre who was posted to the Union territory recently and was present at the hearing, strongly objected to what Sofi said, the report by national newspaper added.
Soon after the hearing , Sofi, who belongs to Safapora, was booked under Section 153A (promoting enmity between the groups) and jailed. After he was given bail by a local court on 12 June, police held him under preventive detention for being a “threat to peace”:
In its report submitted to the court and arguing against bail to Sofi, police said, “If the accused is released on bail at this time, he can harass the witnesses and can hinder the investigation in the case. Since the accused is impudent, he can coax the witnesses.”
Giving an account of what happened on 10 June, police in its report said, “During the meeting, a civil society group put forward its demands before the Advisor (Khan) sahib. The group… was led by Sajad Ahmad Sofi… While putting forward his demands before the Advisor sahib, he used the following words: ‘Mein aapse umeed rakhta hoon. Chunki aap ik Kashmiri hain aur samajh sakte hain, aur mein aap ka gareban pakad sakta hoon aur aapse jawab-talab kar sakta hoon. Magar gair-riyasati afsaron se kya umeed rakh sakta hoon (I can have expectations from you because you are a Kashmiri and you can understand us. I can grab you by the collar and seek answers. But what expectations can I have from officers who are outsiders)?’.”
The police report added that Jyotsna “stood up from her seat and strongly objected”. “The circumstances of the incident and from the statements, a crime under 153A of the IPC is made… The accused has been arrested and his family has been informed. He is on police remand at the police station Safapora,” the report said.
Section 153A of the IPC deals with ‘promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc’ and ‘doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’.
