Shah Faesal Detained For Instigating People Of Srinagar, J&K Administration Tells Delhi HC

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that the former IPS-turned-politician Shah Faesal was detained as he was found to be involved in instigating people gathered outside the Srinagar airport.

Faesal was detained at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport on August 14. (File Photo/ PTI)

New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that the former IPS-turned-politician Shah Faesal was detained as he was found to be involved in instigating people gathered outside the Srinagar airport against the sovereignty and integrity of the country. "Though Faesal had claimed that he was leaving for the United States for pursuing higher education at the Harvard University, he did not have any student visa," read an affidavit filed by the Jammu and Kashmir police before the Delhi HC. The affidavit also stated that Shah had a tourist visa and not a student visa. Faesal was detained at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport on August 14 and was later sent back to Srinagar where he is currently in detention. The affidavit also informed that Faesal was detained on the verbal order of the executive magistrate who took action and asked him to furnish a bond of Rs 50,000, which he declined. The affidavit by Jammu and Kashmir administration was filed in response to Faesal’s petition in which the former IAS officer had alleged that he was detained illegally under the Public Safety Act (PSA) from Delhi airport.  After his detention, Faesal was taken to Srinagar and kept under house arrest. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Centre on a plea Faesal to give him a copy of the look out circular issued against him. A bench of justices Manmohan and Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal asked the Central government to file its response on or before September 2 and listed it for hearing on September 3 along with a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Faesal, challenging his detention. Advocate Warisa Sarasat, representing Faesal, said they do not know the grounds on which the look out circular (LOC) was issued. The counsel said LOC can only prevent him from travelling but it cannot justify his arrest and detention and there is "malafide" on the part of the central government. The counsel contended that the LOC does not permit authorities to arrest Faesal and take him back to Srinagar even when he kept on insisting that he does not wish to go there as his wife and child were in Delhi itself. The apex court will hear the petitions against the lookout circular and his detention on September 3. In the aftermath of the Centre removing Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, Faesal had said the state was experiencing an 'unprecedented' lockdown.