New Delhi/Jammu/Srinagar, October 20, 2020: Prof. Bhim Singh, Sr. Advocate of Supreme Court & former Legislator, J&K Assembly who is also Executive Chairman, State Legal Aid Committee, J&K has urged the President of India, Shri Ramnath Kovind to intervene to save the sanctity of the rule of law as well as constitutional dignity of an elected Member of Parliament from J&K, Dr Farooq Abdullah.
This, he said, is the voice of the Indian citizens in J&K who are entitled to all fundamental rights in J&K after the removal of Article 35-A by the President. The constitutional expert urged the President for his intervention to find out whether a sitting Member of Parliament, Dr Farooq Abdullah, remained in detention/custody of the Enforcement Directorate in Srinagar (Kashmir) in its Rambagh Headquarters yesterday.
He said that he would like to convey to the Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha that a sitting Member of Parliament, Dr Farooq Abdullah, was detained by the officials of the Enforcement Directorate yesterday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m as reported by the press and reported in the media.
Prof.Bhim Singh said that there are some rules and legal applications which have to be preserved when any person is detained without informing him in advance.
He questioned, can the Enforcement Directorate arrest/detain any person without proper warrant or a sitting Member of Parliament without informing or seeking the mission of the Speaker of the Parliament. Can an elderly person who has crossed 80 years of age as well as not in proper health condition be detained by any police agency and hereby the Enforcement Directorate which is functioning directly under the Union Govt?
Is it not justified that an elderly person, here sitting Member of Parliament like Dr Farooq Abdullah, needed to be accompanied by his Doctor? Was it not necessary under rule of law that a person who is above 80 years should have been provided with an opportunity to have his proper meal/lunch or even some meals for the sake of his health and fitness to face seven hours interrogation by the highly expert officials of the Enforcement Directorate from the Union Govt?
Prof. Bhim Singh urged the President of India that such actions being committed by the BJP Union Govt shall not allow the confidence of the people of J&K to return that under such conditions when a sitting Member of Parliament and 84 years old nationalist leader from Kashmir is facing such a humiliating situation on complaints in some financial matters not concerning the security of the state.
Prof. Bhim Singh urged the President that he himself (Bhim Singh) has spent more than eight years in J&K prisons, illegal detentions and faced tremendous amounts of suppression in J&K prisons even when he was a sitting Legislator in the Assembly. That time they were ruling J&K who have been lodged in the detentions and summoned for interrogation today. He said that today he (Bhim Singh) is a citizen of India, a Barrister of Law and has been defending many citizens of India as well as citizens of Pakistan, Palestine and other countries who have been facing illegal detentions anywhere in the world. He said that he is today urging the President of India that, may it be Dr Farooq Abdullah, a sitting MP or anybody else who has been illegally treated by any authority of law or detained or unlawfully treated in detention by any state agency, he shall fight his case from the doors of the Legislature, Supreme Court of India and to the Presidential House.
Prof. Bhim Singh described this illegal seven hours detention of a sitting MP as illegal, unconstitutional and deserves the attention of all political parties as well as Members of Parliament.
