Jammu: With the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly session set to begin on October 23rd, the legal team of jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Mehraj Malik is preparing to file an application in the High Court seeking permission to attend the session. In a day or two, Malik, the MLA from Doda, will file the application for a hearing in the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, the MLA’s personal assistant, Aamir Malik, said, “In a day or two, we expect to file an application in the High Court seeking permission for the Doda MLA to attend the Assembly session. If the application is accepted, it will be processed; otherwise, we will raise the issue in the High Court during the October 14th hearing.”
Malik’s legal team’s decision comes after Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said on Friday that the court must grant permission for Mehraj Malik to attend the upcoming Assembly session.
Malik’s team wants to use the case of Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who was granted permission by the court to attend the monsoon session of Parliament, as an example. Aamir Malik said, “We will attach the Supreme Court’s directive regarding Engineer Rashid and present our case.”
On September 8, Doda MLA Mehraj was booked by the Deputy Commissioner of Doda under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for allegedly violating public order and was arrested and sent to District Jail Kathua.
Following Mehraj Malik’s arrest, his supporters protested in various areas of Doda district, prompting the administration to impose Section 163 of the BNSS, suspend mobile calling in his native Bhallesa, and suspend mobile internet and broadband services across the district.
Things are now back to normal, but Malik’s personal assistant has claimed that the MLA’s supporters are being harassed by the Doda police for posting anything on social media. He wrote on Mehraj Malik’s Facebook page, “I request the police and administration to stop the atrocities against our people. Anyone who posts anything in support of Mehraj Sahib is being called to the police station every day. This has become a daily routine in Doda.”
Aamir Malik told ETV Bharat, “Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Doda, Sandeep Mehta, called me to his office and asked me to refrain from posting anything on the official page of the Doda MLA. But whatever I am doing is in accordance with the law because I am not the first person to do this.”
He further said, “I tried to avoid talking about this, but the police also called a man named Sher Muhammad Malik to the Gundoh police station and kept him there for several hours. His only fault was that he posted in support of MLA Mehraj Malik.”
