A high court judge in Srinagar has allowed the transfer of criminal proceedings against a former minister to a Jammu court, citing the inhospitable situation in the Valley.

The ruling came at a time the Centre has been hard-selling an all-is-well line on Kashmir. The judge made no mention of the Centre’s claims about normality in Kashmir.

Justice Sanjay Dhar of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court said a “fair and impartial trial” against Congress politician Shabir Ahmad Khan, accused of harassing a doctor who happens to be a separatist leader’s wife, “may not be possible at Srinagar”.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a veiled dig at Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, claiming its Kashmir leg had been possible because of an improved situation in the Valley following the 2019 constitutional changes.

“It is a fact of common knowledge that incidents of attacks on mainstream politicians and the people who do not subscribe to the separatist ideology are still taking place in the Kashmir Valley,” Justice Dhar said on Thursday.

“Therefore, it cannot be stated that apprehension expressed by the petitioner to his life at Srinagar while facing trial before the court is unfounded.”

Justice Dhar said it was “not a dispute” that the complainant happened to be the wife of a separatist leader “who wields some influence amongst certain sections of people living in the Valley who subscribe to his ideology”.

The separatist leader has been in jail for several years. Khan, who was health minister in the National Conference-Congress government, had resigned in 2014 after the doctor accused him of sexual harassment.

The case came up before the chief judicial magistrate’s (CJM) court in Srinagar.

A year later, Khan petitioned the high court to transfer the case to his native Jammu. His plea has now been accepted after several years. Khan’s petition said that Srinagar-based criminal lawyer Mohammad Abdullah Pandit, whom he had hired to represent him at the CJM’s court, had withdrawn after receiving a “threat to his life”.

He claimed that two more lawyers had refused to plead his case.

“The contention of the petitioner that at least three advocates in Srinagar whom he had approached to take up his case showed their inability to do so has remained un-rebutted,” Justice Dhar said. Khan said the atmosphere on the trial court premises was “highly charged and hostile, and whenever (Khan) appears before the court, slogans are being raised against him inside and outside the court premises”.

“The court remains jampacked and the petitioner apprehends grave and serious bodily attack from the crowd which gathers over there upon the instigation of the separatists,” the petition said.

The former minister claims the motive behind the complaint is to tarnish his image. The situation in Kashmir has been a subject of frequent spats between the Centre and the Opposition.

Buoyed by the success of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi had last month dared Union home minister Amit Shah to prove his claims of normality in Kashmir by walking from Jammu to Srinagar.

Modi hit back in Parliament, suggesting the Yatra’s success owed to the Centre’s Kashmir policy. He said there was peace in Kashmir, allowing hundreds to visit the region, shattering tourism records.

A “festival of democracy” was being celebrated in Kashmir, which had witnessed successful campaigns like Har Ghar Tiranga, Modi had added.