Anantnag: Police in Anantnag have detained two women – the daughter and the wife – of the man accused of assaulting Power Development Department (PDD) employees, despite the fact that their name was not in the list of assailants.
On December 1, the official handle of Executive Engineer PDD Anantnag shared an undated video wherein the employees of the department were getting manhandled by some locals in the Kadipora area of Anantnag district.
“Let us collectively shame the power thieves,” the tweet read, while it accused one Sabzar Ahmad Ganai, a resident of Ashwar Mohalla in Kadipora of instigating the people of the area.
Deputy Commissioner Anantnag, Dr Piyush Singla, shared the video on his Twitter handle and wrote, “Such behaviour is simply unacceptable. Strict action shall be taken against the perpetrators of such violent behaviour against employees on duty,”
Following the widespread condemnations and official intervention, police have apparently filed a case in this regard and a few people were arrested, including the prime accused Sabzar Ahmad Ganai.
What, however, has irked locals is that police have also detained the wife and daughter of Ganai, “for no apparent fault of theirs.”
The locals Kashmir Reader talked to were aghast at the police action and said that the police were not only bringing disrepute to the women of the family, they were also jeopardizing the career of Ganai’s daughter.
“She is pursuing her graduation and such random arrest will for sure put her career in jeopardy. Besides, how is it even right to arrest family members of someone who has been accused of something, rightfully or wrongfully?” the residents of the area asked.
The residents called the imprisonment of these women wrongful and demanded their immediate release. “They have been behind the bars for four days now, just because a man from their family had an altercation with someone,” the residents said.
Kashmir Reader talked to the Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) of the area, Wajid Ahmad, who was accompanying the employees and wrote a complaint against the assault as well.
“We did not name any woman in our complaint. We had identified some men from the video and had mentioned their names,” he said.
Kashmir Reader tried talking to Station House Officer (SHO) Anantnag, Masarat Alam, who excused himself by saying that he was out of the station. He did not respond to any phone calls and the subsequent texts inquiring about an in-charge at the station this reporter could talk to.
SSP Anantnag Ashish Kumar Mishra did not attend phone calls and insisted that this reporter text the inquiry. He did not reply to the text, however.

Suhail A Shah