The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to inform by next week if it is planning to release former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah from detention.
This comes just days after Omar's father and three-time former chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, was released after over seven months of detention under the strict Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows arrest without trial for up to two years.
"If you are releasing Omar Abdullah, release him soon or we will hear his sister's plea against his detention on merit," the Supreme Court told the Centre.
On Tuesday, in a goodwill gesture, Farooq met Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti and her family and spent nearly an hour with them. Mehbooba, another former chief minister of the erstwhile state, has also been under house arrest since a day before the Centre moved a motion in the Parliament to revoke Article 370.
The meeting came two days after he asked all political parties of Jammu and Kashmir to jointly appeal to the Centre to bring back all detainees lodged outside the Union Territory.
The 82-year-old Abdullah drove to 'Fairview' residence of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, where he met her mother Gulshan Ara and daughter Iltija Mufti.
"It was a nice gesture from such a senior leader of the state to have spent time with us," Iltija Mufti told PTI.
On Februrary 10, Omar's sister moved the Supreme Court challenging his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The PSA dossier prepared by the police against the 49-year-old Omar, who had served as minister of state for external affairs as well as commerce and industries, includes in its charges his ability to convince electorates to vote in huge numbers amid poll boycott calls by separatists and militants.
"The capacity of the subject to influence people for any cause can be gauged from the fact that he was able to convince his electorate to come out and vote in huge numbers even during peak of militancy and poll boycotts," it said.
