The authorities have rejected the passport application of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and her mother. As per separate letters sent by the Passport Office Srinagar to Mufti and her mother Gulshan Nazir, which Mufti posted on the social media, their applications for passport have been rejected.
“The passport verification report received from the Additional Director General of the Police, J&K CID, does not favour issuance of passport and has returned as ‘not recommended passport case’,” reads the letters sent to Mufti and her mother.
Taking to Twitter, Mehbooba wrote: “Government of India is employing absurd methods to harass and punish me for not toeing their line.”
“Passport Office refused to issue my passport based on CID’s report citing it as ‘detrimental to the security of India.’ This is the level of normalcy achieved in Kashmir since Aug 2019 that an ex Chief Minister holding a passport is a threat to the sovereignty of a mighty nation,” Mehbooba wrote.
The letter from the passport authorities attached with Mehbooba’s tweet says her application, made in December last year, “had been forwarded for police verification, but a negative report was received”.
In another Tweet, Mehbooba said the Passport Office has also rejected her mother’s application. “CID claims that my mother who is well into her seventies is a threat to national security and therefore doesn’t deserve a passport.”
Former Chief Minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah has reacted strongly to denying of passport to Mufti.
“What a shame J&K Police is going along with this farce. How is it that Mehbooba Mufti was not a threat to the nation when her party was allied with the BJP? As Chief Minister she was in-charge of the Home Department & head of the Unified Command, now suddenly she’s a threat!” Omar wrote on Twitter.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) last Thursday questioned Mehbooba in connection with spending of funds and sale of ancestral property. Last week, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed in a chargesheet filed in connection with the case related to arrested former J&K DSP Davinder Singh that Mufti knew arrested Hizbul Mujahideen militant Naveed Babu and had also spoken to him once. This is for the first time that the name of Mufti has come up in any of the cases being probed by the NIA in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mufti was released by the Jammu and Kashmir administration in October last year after more than a year long detention.