FIR against former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti for alleged poll code violation

Election authorities in Kashmir have registered an FIR against former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct, officials said on Wednesday.

The FIR has been registered against Mehbooba for violating Section 144 after she and her party workers held a protest sit-in in the Bijbehara area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district, the officials said.

The PDP president termed the registration of the FIR against her as "amusing".

"Amusing to find an FIR filed against me for apparently flouting MCC. This is the price PDP has paid for speaking truth to power. Our protest was against GOI in cahoots with local administration for detaining hundreds of PDP polling agents and workers in the hours leading up to voting," she said.

"Still not satisfied the same administration went onto launch Cordon and Search Operations in traditional PDP stronghold areas to terrorise our voters and prevent them from exercising their right to vote. Ulta chor kotwal ko daante (the pot calling the kettle back)," Mehbooba said in a post on X.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday staged a protest outside a police station in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, while polling was underway in the Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary seat in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections.

She was protesting against the alleged detention of her party workers and polling agents.

The officials said the protest was a "gross violation" of the MCC.

"The huge group of PDP workers also blocked the main road and staged a protest at main stop Bijbehara (for) more than one hour which amounts (to) violations of the Section 144 CrPc which was imposed in the constituency," the FIR said.

Election authorities had imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC from 6 pm on May 23 till 6 pm on May 25 in the wake of the polling in the constituency and to uphold the sanctity of democratic principles.

The prohibitory order imposed a ban on unlawful assembly as per section 144 of the IPC and any procession or rally to prevent any law and order problem.