A day before Jammu and Kashmir’s District Development Council election begins, PDP leader Waheed Para has been remanded to 15 days of National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody on Friday.
He was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly conspiring with Hizbul Mujahideen militants to get their support during the 2019 parliamentary elections. Para had filed his nomination for the election beginning from November 28.
On Thursday, the NIA produced Para in a Delhi court and sought a transit remand for his production before a designated court in Jammu.
Para was taken to Jammu and produced before a designated NIA court which remanded him to 15-day custody. It has been alleged that Para has “close links” with some Irfan Shafi Mir, who was arrested along with Hizbul Mujahideen militant Naveed Babu and suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police Davinder Singh earlier this year.
Early on Friday, PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and her daughter Iltija claimed that they had been detained at their residence to prevent them from visiting the house of Para in Pulwama in South Kashmir.
“Their cruelty knows no bounds. Waheed was arrested on baseless charges and I am not allowed to even console his family. Even my daughter Iltija has been placed under house arrest because she also wanted to visit Waheed’s family,” Mehbooba tweeted.
According to the officials, during the investigation into Singh’s association with Hizbul Mujahideen militants, the NIA came across phone records of Mir which showed that he was in close contact with Para.
Mir had claimed during questioning that Para sought his support during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for his party candidate Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and also president of the PDP, the officials said.
