Daijiworld Media Network - Jammu

Jammu, Mar 19: A Jammu court has issued a non-bailable warrant against Mehraj Malik, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from the Doda Assembly constituency, in a defamation case.

The Special Excise Mobile Magistrate in Jammu has directed the police to arrest Malik and present him before the court on May 14, the scheduled date for the next hearing. The case was filed by former Congress leader G.M. Saroori, who has accused Malik of making defamatory remarks. The complaint, lodged at Gandoh Police Station, falls under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which pertains to defamation.

Malik, who won the Doda seat on an AAP ticket, had defeated Saroori and other contenders in the last Assembly elections. His victory made him the sole AAP representative in the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The party currently supports the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) government in the Union Territory.

In the most recent Assembly elections, the NC emerged as the dominant party with 42 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 29, Congress won six, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) three, and AAP, CPI(M), Peoples Conference (PC), and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) each won one seat. Additionally, six Independent candidates were victorious, with five of them later aligning with the NC.

BJP's stronghold remained in the Jammu division, where it secured all 29 of its seats, failing to win a single seat in the Kashmir Valley. Some prominent BJP-backed candidates also suffered defeats.

Last year’s Lok Sabha elections in J&K resulted in the BJP and NC winning two seats each, while the AIP, led by Engineer Rashid, secured one seat. These elections were the first since J&K was reorganized into a Union Territory on August 5, 2019.