She has said that she will continue to be vocal for the restoration of Article 370.
Srinagar: Former Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who was till recently heading a coalition government with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, is now facing serious charges by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and was questioned for four hours by the ED officials in the Srinagar office.
Coming out after being grilled for hours in the ED office, Mehbooba Mufti told reporters that the BJP government has criminalized dissent and was using national investigating agencies to silence all the voices against their policies.
But recently a senior sleuth of the NIA was quoted by a news agency that in the supplementary charge sheet filed in the Davinder Singh case, Mehbooba Mufti was in touch with arrested Hizb terrorist Naveed Babu.
The NIA official was further quoted as saying that Mufti has even talked to Hizb’s Naveed Babu once on telephone and was in touch with their organization through her political conduit Waheed Parra who was arrested by NIA and was subsequently bailed by the NIA court.
“Questions were asked regarding the sale of land that was owned by my father Mufti Syed and I in Bijbehara in South Kashmir and they also questioned me about use of the chief minister’s secret funds. Dissent has been criminalized in the country. This country is ruled by ED, CBI, and NIA,” Mehbooba Mufti told reporters outside the ED office of Srinagar when she was asked what the case was for which she was summoned by the ED.
She claimed that she had nothing to hide and will be as usual vocal for the restoration of Article 370, and said that she cannot be silenced by the central agencies not to talk about the “truth”.
But the recent supplementary charge-sheet filed by the NIA has serious charges against the former Chief Minister who has headed a coalition government with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir.
Can Mehbooba Mufti take cover under the pretext of being hounded by agencies like ED and NIA for talking about the dignity and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir?
If the NIA has the leads, will they arrest Mehbooba Mufti in the coming days? Will a charge-sheet against Mehbooba Mufti stand in the court of law? Is it a pure political vendetta against Mehbooba Mufti or have the ED and NIA enough evidence to file charge-sheets against her conduct in the cases pending before them? These are the questions being asked in political and media circles of Kashmir.
Mehbooba Mufti has already started talking about how she is being pressurized by the Central government to keep mum on the issues pertaining to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and has already painted these investigations with political colour.