Srinagar: A political worker of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Doda district has been booked under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA), with the party’s Jammu and Kashmir chief alleging that the detention was ordered at the behest of a senior BJP leader.

The order for the detention of Mohd Rafi alias Pinka, a resident of Phagsoo in Doda district in Jammu, was issued under section 8 of the PSA by Harvinder Singh, district magistrate (DM) of Doda and a 2019-batch IAS officer, on Thursday (April 10).

Section 8 of the PSA empowers Jammu and Kashmir’s DMs to detain any individual against whom a police dossier has been brought “with a view to preventing [them] from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order”.

Rafi, a prominent social and political activist who runs a small shop in Phagsoo, has contested sarpanch and district development council elections from Doda in the past.

In December 2021, he had reportedly flagged alleged irregularities in the Integrated Watershed Management Programme in Doda to Jammu and Kashmir’s anti-corruption bureau and the lieutenant governor’s grievance cell.

Later, he alleged that his forged signature was used to withdraw the complaint in order to “suppress the matter and shield the culprits”.

The PSA dossier submitted to the Doda DM’s office on March 29 describes Rafi as an “OGW (Category-A)” – OGW stands for overground worker of militants – who has the “ability” to trigger “serious law and order problem” and “public disorder” in the district “with his inflammatory and highly objectionable speeches”.

However, out of the four first information reports (FIRs), four daily diary reports and an istagasa report mentioned in the dossier, none pertains to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, under which those involved in militancy or separatism have been booked by the Jammu and Kashmir police.

One FIR filed at the Thathri police station accused Rafi, who has been shifted to the Udhampur district jail following his detention under the PSA, and others of trespassing into the Phagsoo police post on August 4, 2013 with “sticks in their hands”, threatening police personnel and obstructing them in discharging their duties “with common and criminal intention”.

A 2014 FIR filed on October 11 against Rafi on charges of “rash and negligent driving” during which a woman suffered injuries has been also mentioned in the dossier for the preventive detention of Rafi under the controversial law, which has been termed a “lawless law” by Amnesty International.

The third FIR on May 21, 2021 pertains to a protest demonstration at Phagsoo which was held by Rafi and other residents allegedly “without any permission or information … and violating” the prohibitory orders imposed under the Disaster Management Act for the prevention of the spread of COVID-19.

The fourth FIR filed on March 19 this year has accused Rafi, who has been vocal about social and political issues, of using “unparliamentary language” against and “manhandling” an assistant engineer posted in Thatri.

The PSA dossier notes that Rafi, who is listed as an alleged OGW in the Thatri police station, has been acquitted in one out of four FIRs, “discharged” in another and convicted in a third “which is not directly related to public order”, while the fourth case is under investigation.

“The subject has acted every bit to corrupt the minds of youth through his speeches and he always tries to motivate the youth towards violence and anti-social activities, which is the first step towards creating hostile environment by causing unrest and thereafter pushing youth towards anti-national and illegal activities to wage war against the state being an OGW of terrorist organisations,” the dossier states.

The dossier alleges that Rafi “does not have any fear of law or its enforcement agencies and openly challenges state machinery of dire consequences if his wishes are not met as per his expectations and while doing so, instigates public, especially youth, to create law and order situation in the [Doda] district”.

However, Mehraj Malik, the AAP’s Jammu and Kashmir chief and a first-time MLA from Doda who defeated the BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana, said that the district administration had acted at the behest of the saffron party to detain Rafi.

In a 19-minute livestream of Facebook on Saturday (April 12) evening, Malik said that Rafi had participated in protests against illegal mining allegedly involving some policemen while claiming that the Doda DM had acted under the influence of Kishtwar MLA and senior BJP leader Sunil Sharma.

“Some policemen and a junior engineer are running a [mining] mafia and looting [public resources in Doda]. [After Rafi exposed them], they fell on the feet of Sunil Sharma, who made a phone call to you. You prepared a case [against Rafi] and threw him into jail. What action have you taken against the accused?  For how long will you continue this spectacle?” Malik said, addressing the DM.

The video had logged 8.5 lakh views, more than 8,200 comments and 5,900 shares when this report was filed.

Malik continued, addressing the DM: “You can’t control the mafia. Patients aren’t getting proper treatment under your administration. You are taking a lead in crushing the poor. Hooligans were better than you. You should have some shame. And these are the people who will run the country and make it better!”

Sharma and Doda’s DM were not available for comment. This story shall be updated as and when a response is received.

Last year, a Supreme Court bench led by former Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud ruled that the government’s inability to tackle law and order should not become an excuse for “capricious or routine exercise of powers”, while terming the preventive detention of suspects as a “draconian provision”.

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court has also held that detaining the government’s critics was “an abuse of the preventive law” and that the criticism of government policies cannot become grounds for placing suspects under preventive detention.

Last month, chief minister Omar Abdullah in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly said that more than 400 youth of the Union territory have been booked without any evidence or formal charges against them under the PSA, which empowers law enforcement agencies to detain suspects without trial for two years.

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