Under house arrest for a year, SC must question Centre: Soz

SRINAGAR: Congress leader Saifuddin Soz, 82, on Thursday said he has been under detention since August last year when Jammu & Kashmir was divested of its special status and accused the Union Territory administration of lying to the Supreme Court on Wednesday that he was “never detained nor under house arrest”. The court on Wednesday closed a habeas corpus petition filed by Soz’s wife after the administration assured it he was not under detention.

“I am [under] house arrest since August 5, 2019, and today [Thursday] press people came and they saw police not allowing me to go out...they [administration] shamelessly told the SC [Supreme Court] that I was a free man. It is so tragic. The SC must feel the necessity of asking the central government why it was told lies...my lawyer will approach a court here about how a lie was told in the Supreme Court,” Soz told HT over phone.

Soz, who is a five-time member of Parliament and a former Union minister, said this after a video went viral on social media showing security personnel pulling him away from the boundary wall of his Srinagar house when he was speaking to journalists. Soon after, Soz, who can’t be seen any longer, is heard telling the person who pulled him away not to touch him.