Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti appeared before the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Monday in connection with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) she filed recently, seeking the transfer of all undertrial prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir, who are currently lodged in jails outside the Union Territory (UT), back to J&K.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, Mufti said that many locals apprehended before and after 2019 “on the basis of suspicion” continue to languish in prisons, while offenders like Asaram and Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh have been granted bail or parole despite their involvement in heinous crimes.
The PDP chief said her petition was filed out of “compulsion and humanity” for hundreds of poor families who, she said, have suffered for years without justice.
“People like the rapist Asaram and Gurmeet, who calls himself by the holy name Ram Rahim – if such convicts can be released despite their crimes, then why are prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir, whose cases have not even been proven, still being held? It seems as if the judicial process itself has become their punishment,” she told reporters.
Making a strong appeal before the court, Mufti said, “When every door to justice closes, for me this court is the last door.”
She added that most of these prisoners come from poor families who cannot afford to travel to meet their relatives or fight their legal battles. “They have children, wives, and elderly parents at home. They don’t have the means to travel such long distances to see them – how will they fight their cases if they cannot even visit them?” she asked.
Mufti urged the court to take a humanitarian view of the matter rather than focus solely on technicalities.
Later, in a statement posted on X, Mufti said, “We waited, hoping that since an elected government came into being, the National Conference would take action on the issue of undertrial prisoners lodged in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir. The PDP even brought a resolution in the Assembly advocating this cause, but unfortunately, it was rejected.”
She said that after exhausting every other option, approaching the High Court was the only recourse left to seek justice for prisoners “languishing in jails far from their homes and Kashmir.”
“The process itself has become punishment as they have yet to be proven guilty. The majority of these undertrials hail from poor families lacking the means to defend themselves while being so far from their loved ones. I sincerely hope justice prevails,” she said.
Reacting to Mufti’s court appearance, National Conference (NC) chief spokesperson and MLA Tanvir Sadiq, while addressing an election rally in Budgam, criticised her stance.
“During Mehbooba Mufti’s tenure from April 2017 to August 2018, 1,004 Kashmiri youth were booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA). And today, the same Mehbooba Mufti is approaching the court seeking the transfer of Kashmiri prisoners back to the Valley. This is what we call dirty politics,” Sadiq remarked.