Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police have re-arrested advocate Zahid Ali, former spokesman of the banned socio-religious group Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), on May 16 in another case under (FIR 19/2019) related to the Central Jail Srinagar Incident.
The rearrest comes as a
member of the JeI announced plans to contest assembly elections if the ban was revoked.
Ali was released on May 2 after spending 20 months in jail under the Public Safety Act (PSA), following the J&K High Court's declaration of his detention as "illegal" and its order for the J&K administration to compensate him with five lakhs rupees in April.
According to the police, Ali was rearrested because he is accused of chanting alleged anti-India slogans and attempting to break jail, as well as stone pelting in Srinagar Central Jail in 2019.
However, in a statement issued on behalf of Ali by his family, Ali said that the “police have no authority to release a person from jail who is involved in any other case and then arrest him on the discreet/whimsical orders and wishes of some higher officer”.
“Although I have been released by the High Court three times between 2019 and 2024, the police never informed me or my family about my involvement in this particular case, which is totally fake as I had no role at all in the incident. I had not even moved out of my barrack in the jail nor had any concern regarding that incident,” the statement reads.
“I am totally innocent and have been deliberately implicated in the case simply in order to prolong my detention,” it added.