Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, June 20: Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil headed by CEC-cum-Chairman Feroz Khan today suspended one of its members who was arrested after his highly objectionable audio clip mocking Army and country’s leadership in the wake of the recent face-off between India and China went viral on social media, an official said.
Zakir Hussain, a councilor from Shakar constituency, was placed under suspension with immediate effect, the officials said after an Executive Council meeting chaired by Khan at Council Secretariat in Kargil, the official said.
Deliberating upon the situation which has evolved in the district in the aftermath of the viral audio conversation of Hussain, Khan said the Executive Council in one voice condemned the views expressed by him in the strongest possible terms.
“The Executive Council was of the view that it was an act of one individual who is being dealt as per the law of the land,” he said.
With regard to the councillor being a member of LAHDC-Kargil, the Executive Council discussed the course of action to be initiated in his case by LAHDC-Kargil as per the LAHDC Act.
“Keeping in view the information received from the Kargil District Magistrate, the Executive Council decided that the councilor shall stand suspended from the LAHDC-Kargil with immediate effect. It was further decided that formal orders in this regard shall be issued by the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, LAHDC, Kargil,” the official said.
He said the power to remove a member also came up for discussion during the meeting and it was given out such powers vest with the government under Section 19 of the LAHDC Act, 1997.
Meanwhile, the Councilor has been arrested by the police.
The Councilor was arrested from a house in Kargil town during an early morning raid and is being questioned while efforts are on to get hold of his friend with whom he was heard holding the conversation over the phone, a police official said.
A police spokesman said an FIR was registered against him after receiving reliable information that an audio clip was going viral, containing incriminating content, on various social media platforms.
“The conversation is between a sitting LAHDC-Kargil Councilor with one of his known persons with content prejudicial to the regional or religious peace and tranquility, spreading rumours and also seditious in nature,” the spokesman said.
After conducting a preliminary probe, he said Kargil police station registered the case following an inquiry under relevant provisions of penal law.
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