J-K prisoners’ panel puts off meet, again

For the third time in a row, the joint screening committee set up to review cases of prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir postponed its meeting at the last minute today. No official reason was offered for the move.

The postponement of the meeting, the first-ever by the panel, has given a setback to the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government’s healing touch policy, whose central point is the release of prisoners involved in minor offences. While sources here claimed the meeting was postponed because Financial Commissioner, Home, S.D. Singh was not available and that the decision was taken yesterday itself, reports from Delhi said the state government needed some time to collect documents considered essential by the Ministry of Home Affairs before release of any prisoners.

The Home Ministry wants to study these documents in detail as criminal cases involve the state government as a party in court while cases under the Public Safety Act involve district magistrates and commissioners. The screening committee was supposed to discuss modalities for release of prisoners, especially the 85 who have either completed their detention periods or committed lesser offences. Their release had been put on hold earlier after the Centre objected to the manner in which some prisoners had been let off by the state.

The meeting had earlier been put off on Jan 10 and Jan 17 after the Jammu-bound flight that a top Home Ministry official, Rakesh Ahuja, had to take to attend was cancelled due to bad weather.