'Was on Way to Harvard': Friend Moves HC on Behalf of Shah Faesal Against Detention at Delhi Airport

New Delhi: A plea was moved in the Delhi High Court on Monday alleging that former IAS officer Shah Faesal was illegally detained at the IGI Airport here on August 14 and taken back to Srinagar where he has been kept under house arrest.

The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal which did not issue notice in the matter after the central government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said it will file a response to the habeas corpus plea, moved on behalf of Faesal through a 'pariorkar or next of friend — Mohd Hussain Cader.

A habeas corpus plea requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or a court. According to the affidavit filed by Cader along with the petition, Faesal's wife apprised him of the issue after which he moved the plea. The court listed the matter for further hearing on August 23.

According to the petition, Faesal was on his way to Harvard University in the US for higher studies when he was illegally detained at the Delhi airport under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The plea alleges that the manner in which he was "whisked away" to Kashmir without even a transit remand amounts to "abduction".

The petition has contended that he was scheduled to travel to Boston, USA, via Istanbul and Frankfurt when he was detained at Delhi airport. It said he was travelling to the US to complete his course in Master in Public Administration when he was "illegally picked up" from Indira Gandhi International Airport here.

The former bureaucrat from Jammu and Kashmir had floated a political outfit — J&K Peoples Movement party — after resigning from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Post the removal of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, provided under Article 370, Faesal had said Kashmir is experiencing an "unprecedented" lockdown and its eight million population "incarcerated" like never before.