Agencies

New Delhi, February 10:

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s sister Sara Abdullah Pilot on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

The bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, agreed to urgent listing of the matter after it was mentioned by senior advocate Kapil Sibal.

“It is rare that those who have served the nation as members of Parliament, chief ministers of a state, ministers in the Union, and have always stood by the national aspirations of India, are now perceived as a threat to the state,” the plea said.

“The grounds for the detention order are wholly lacking any material facts or particulars which are imperative for an order of detention,” the plea said, adding that the detention order was “illegal”.

The plea sought issuance of habeas corpus and quashing of the 5 February order detaining Abdullah under the PSA.

The developments come in the wake of dossiers justifying the imposition of the draconian PSA against former chief minister Omar Abdullah. The dossier said Abdullah’s “considerable influence” over people, as well as his ability to attract voters to polling booths during the peak of militancy is a cause for his detention under the Public Safety Act.

The dossier states that former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been “referred for her dangerous and insidious machinations and usurping profile and nature by the masses as ‘Daddy’s girl’ and ‘Kota Rani’”

“In new India, dossier on an ex Chief Minister slapped with draconian PSA mentions insidious machinations & being a ‘Daddy’s girl’ as charges,” Mufti tweeted on Monday.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted, “Since when has being a “Daddy’s girl” & encouraging people to vote become a crime against the nation? I would be proud to be both! It’s pretty clear that the government has no basis for charging @omarabdullah & @mehboobamufti with PSA. They must be freed.”

On 7 February, the former chief ministers were booked under the Public Safety Act, nearly six months after they were placed under preventive detention.