Hardcore criminal booked under PSA in J-K's Kathua

An alleged hardcore criminal was arrested on Friday in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir and booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), police said.

Farman Ali, a resident of Ande Chack village of Rajbagh, was wanted in several cases and was evading arrest since 2017, a police spokesman said.

Ali was arrested on a specific information by sub-division border police team in the outskirts of Rajbagh, he said.

"The accused was booked under the PSA by the order of Kathua district magistrate and was sent to Central Jail Jammu," the spokesman said.

The PSA is an administrative detention law that allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in some cases.

However, National Panthers Party (NPP) chief patron Bhim Singh recently demanded release of all detainees who have been booked under the PSA, saying it is no more a valid law after the Centre's move to scrap special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

On August 5, the Centre had abrogated provisions of Article 370 in the Constitution which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir for residency and government jobs.

Parliament approved the resolution in this regard and also passed the bill on the bifurcation of the state into Union territories.

Later on August 9, President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, bifurcating the state into Union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- which will come into existence on October 31.

"All those Indian citizens (Residents of Jammu and Kashmir) who were detained under PSA cannot be detained under the law any longer since fundamental rights available in the constitution of India in its ChapterIII are available to every permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir," Singh had said in a statement last month.