NCP chief Omar Abdullah on Tuesday retweeted a tweet by a local journalist saying that a resident of Safapora village was detained by police for saying in a meeting held by the Advisor to Governor that he had no expectations from the non-local officers to redress their grievances.
Sajad Lone’s Peoples Conference issued a statement on Tuesday appealing LG Manoj Sinha to uphold democracy and condemning the continued detention of a 50-year-old activist from Safapora village identified as Sajad Ahmad Sofi.
Police told media that he has been first booked for spreading enmity and after he got a bail from the court, he was detained again for being a threat to peace.
The incident happened recently when in the presence of the residents of Wani Mohalla village of Safapora in Ganderbal district at a public interaction with the Advisor to LG Sinha, Sofi said that he had no expectations from the non-local officers as the Ganderbal district is being headed by a lady IAS officer from UP cadre.
According to the locals and police, Sajad Sofi was leading a delegation of people from his area.
Ganderbal’s Deputy Commissioner Krittika Jyotsna, an IAS officer of the 2014 batch of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, was sent to J&K on inter-cadre deputation in February this year for a period of two years along with her husband Rahul Pandey, who is heading the information department in the Union Territory.
The police report said that the Deputy Commissioner of Ganderbal “strongly objected” to Sofi’s remarks. Police in its report said, “The circumstances of the incident and from the statements, a crime under 153A of the IPC is made”.
While the court gave him bail, police took Sajad Sofi into custody and said that he has been put in preventive custody for being a “threat to peace”.