FAREEDA AKHTER Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER herein seeks quashment of criminal proceedings purporting to have been initiated by concerned police which ultimately culminated in seizure/attachment of her residential house situated at Saderbal, Srinagar wherefrom she has reportedly been driven out after the seizure.

(2.) IT appears that way back in 2007 her husband, namely, Gulam Hassan Mir was arrested on information and found to be an active militant of Hizb -ul -Mujahiddin (a militant organization) who is reported to have informed his interrogators that he had constructed a house in the name of his wife at Saderbal, Sriangar out of the money which he got and collected by terrorist activities whereupon concerned police while invoking the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2004 seized the house after Deputy Commissioners furnishing a questionnaire to the petitioner herein regarding sources from where she constructed the same.

(3.) GROUNDS pleaded to assail the proceedings as projected by petitioners counsel during course of arguments are that in the first instance the house belonged to and was constructed by petitioner and not her husband and, as such, could not have been seized by concerned police and, secondly, that the requisite procedural steps for its attachment / seizure not having been taken the seizure was illegal. In response Mr. Rathore appearing for other side has contended that having been found to have been constructed out of the proceeds of militancy the house was rightly seized by police under the aforesaid Act and, as such, proceedings could not be assailed.