Police have registered an FIR against former chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti for ‘violating’ the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during polling for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat on 25 May when she defied restrictions under Section 144 CrPc by squatting on the road.
The FIR has been registered in the Bijbehara police station of South Kashmir on the basis of a complaint lodged by the assistant returning officer.
Reacting to the registration of the FIR, Mehbooba wrote on X: “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 the local administration for detaining hundreds of PDP polling agents & workers in the hours leading up to voting. Still not satisfied, the same administration went on to launch Cordon & 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”.
Mehbooba, who is a candidate for the Anantnag seat, on the polling day staged a dharna along with a large number of her supporters outside the Bijbehara police station demanding release of her polling agents and workers who, she said, were detained just before voting. She also wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India seeking its intervention.