Court suspends bail to Masarat Alam

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 22

Following a plea by the J&K Government, a court in north Kashmir today suspended the bail to Hurriyat leader and Muslim League head Masarat Alam till February 27.

Masarat, who was in 15-day judicial custody in a case (FIR no. 53/2015) registered at the Sumbal police station in Bandipora district was yesterday granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bandipora. However, the J&K Government opposed his release on bail.

“He was not released today. The state government moved an application before the District and Sessions Court in Bandipora and got it (the bail) suspended,” senior high court lawyer and Bar Association president Mina Qayoom said. He along with other lawyers today staged a protest demonstration on the High Court lawn against the detention of political activists.

Masarat’s bail has been suspended till February 27. In the meantime, the sessions court has sought objections from Masarat to the plea by the government requesting cancellation of his bail.

Masarat was remanded to judicial custody in the Sumbal case by a court in north Kashmir on February 15. Earlier, he had been arrested in connection with a 2010 FIR at a police station in Srinagar.

Questioning his continuing detention, Qayoom said the High Court had so far quashed 33 detention orders passed against Masarat by the authorities from time to time under the Public Safety Act.

Masarat was booked under the Public Safety Act following the 2010 unrest that left over 100 people dead in the Kashmir valley. He was released in early 2016 for a brief period and then rearrested.

On December 27, 2016, the J&K High Court had ordered the release of the separatist leader. He was not released but shifted from Jammu to Srinagar and taken into custody in the 2010 FIR in which he was granted bail by the court on January 19.