Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir police has registered a case against Kashmir’s top businessman Mushtaq Ahmed Chaya, for defying prohibitory orders imposed by the government to prevent spread of deadly coronavirus.
Mushtaq Ahmed Chaya, who owns a chain of hotels in Srinagar and Gulmarg, allegedly defied government orders and travelled along with a few persons from Jammu’s Red Zone to Srinagar “clandestinely.” He reached his Srinagar residence late yesterday evening, sending security establishment into a tizzy.
A senior police official told NVI that an FIR has been registered against Chaya for defying restrictions. “He was residing in Bhatindi area of Jammu which has been declared as red zone by the authorities,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
“An FIR number 109 has been registered under section 188 Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of Epidemics Diseases Act against Chaya for defying restrictions,” the official said.
When police came to know about Chaya’s movement, an alert was sounded across Srinagar and a search was launched for him.
Sources disclosed that police and government are baffled as to how Chaya managed to reach Srinagar via a highway where number of checkpoints and screening points have been set up. “Police are trying to find out why he wasn’t stopped anywhere on the highway despite strict lockdown in force in the wake of Covid-19 in place,” sources said.
A police document that sounds an alert, a copy of which is with the NVI, reads: “As intimated by Station House Officer Police Station Trikuta Nagar (Jammu) vide his signal dated April 17 that one person namely Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya who was staying at Farooq Abdullah enclave Bathindi, Jammu has deliberately left for Srinagar along with other persons from red zone.”
The Jammu police has also requested authorities in Kashmir to send a team of medical doctors to Chaya’s Srinagar residence for his immediate screening.
