After Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, the editor of a local Urdu daily in Srinagar, was in a nearly three-decade-old terror-related case, a local court reprimanded J&K Police and granted him bail on Tuesday, 25 June.
The court asked police what they were doing for 26 years and how was Qadri issued a passport verification twice if he was a proclaimed offender, The Indian Express reported.
Police was then asked to submit a detailed report on the police action in the case by 31 July.
Editor of 'Daily Afaaq', Qadri was arrested on 24 June in a case that was registered in 1990 under section three of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
He was arrested on a non-bailable warrant issued by the then chief judicial magistrate on 15 October 1992.
The law under which Qadri has been arrested deals with intention to overawe the government as by law established or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people or to alienate any section of the people or to adversely affect the harmony amongst different sections of the people does any act or thing.
He was arrested from his residence in Balgarden area of the city, Qadri’s family said.
"It was nearly midnight when police came to arrest Qadri sahib. No reasons were given before taking him away, a police official asked him when is the election," a relative said.
Kashmir Editors' Guild Condemn Act
Kashmir Editors' Guild, of which Qadri is a member, has moved court to had demanded bail.
Various journalist bodies, including the Kashmir Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), has condemned the midnight arrest of Qadri, alleging it seems the aim of the government's move was to muzzle the voice of local press.
"Qadri was attending his office on daily basis and there was absolutely no need for carrying out a midnight raid at his residence. The working journalists here are wondering about the timing of execution of the warrant which was issued 26 years ago," a spokesperson of the KUWJ said.
(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express)