Tarigami 'not allowed' to fly to Delhi for CPM meet

Senior CPM leader Mohd Yousuf Tarigami has not been able to attend the three-day party Central Committee meeting here, as he was not allowed permission to fly out of Srinagar by the administration.

CPM sources said 72-year-old Tarigami, who had returned to Srinagar on September 19 after he came to Delhi for treatment following a Supreme Court order, had approached the district administration seeking permission to attend the party meeting that started on Wednesday.

However, sources claimed that the district administration did not respond to the application. While the Centre and the state had maintained that he was a free person, CPM leaders said he is not even allowed to get out of his house in Srinagar or meet anyone.

"They neither said yes nor no to the request. Simply no answer," a senior CPM leader told DH.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury had filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court in late August, seeking Tarigami's production. Following this, the Supreme Court allowed Yechury to visit Tarigami in Srinagar.

Tarigami was in detention since August 5 after the Centre revoked special status for Jammu and Kashmir even as Yechury informed the court that he was under house arrest “with no legal charges” pressed against him.

Following an affidavit by Yechury, the apex court allowed bringing Tarigami, who has heart complications, to Delhi for treatment in AIIMS.

On September 16, Supreme Court has said that Tarigami, who also filed a separate petition challenging the government move on scrapping special status of Jammu and Kashmir as well as its bifurcation into two union territories, will be at liberty to move to Srinagar as and when he feels that his health condition would enable him to undertake the journey. Three days later, he left for Srinagar.

In its order, Supreme Court had said that Tarigami was free to approach the Jammu and Kashmir High Court if his movement was restricted following his return. "If he intends to move around any part of Srinagar, where there are restrictions or prohibitions to move, he will be free to do so subject to requisite permission from the district authorities," the court had said while keeping the petition open to decide on the validity of the detention "claimed to be without any authority of law".

Before leaving for Srinagar, Tarigami had made a passionate plea, "we are not asking for heavens, we only ask for a chance to march together with you."

Yechury had said in his affidavit that Tarigami's Z+ security vehicles withdrawn and personnel guarding him were “instructed” not to allow him or his family to move out or allow others entry to his residence.