Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Monday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the detention of party legislator Maharaj Malik under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) which was struck down by the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. The court held that the order against Malik was legally unsustainable and based on a “lack of application of reason”.
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After the court ruling, Kejriwal took to X and criticized Prime Minister Modi and blamed him for issuing “illegal orders”. “Wo galti se PMban gaye. Unkothanedar hona chahiye tha. (He became PM by mistake. He was a prison officer),” Kejriwal wrote on X. Malik is the president of AAP’s J&K unit.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Communist Party of India (Maoist) leader Mai Tarigami also highlighted the misuse of the draconian Public Security Act that allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in some cases, while Malik’s supporters took to the streets in his Doda constituency to welcome the verdict.
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“He should never have been detained under the PSA; in fact, he should not have been detained at all. His detention was a gross abuse of this law and completely unjustified. I hope the people responsible for this detention learn a valuable lesson from the Supreme Court decision and reflect on the way these laws are being misused in Jammu and Kashmir,” he wrote.
Malik was arrested under the Public Security Act in September for allegedly disturbing public order and was subsequently lodged in Kathua jail.
Disregarding the arrest order issued by the Doda District Magistrate against Malik on September 8 last year, Justice Muhammad Yusuf Wani directed the authorities to “immediately release the petitioner/detainee from preventive custody”.
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Lawyer Zulqarnain Chowdhury explained the details of the case. He said that the case was initially before the Jammu bench of Jammu Kashmir Ladakh High Court and was later transferred to Kashmir.
“An elected representative was booked under the Public Safety Act. He was detained on September 8, 2025. The file was submitted by SSP Doda, and the final detention order was passed by the Deputy Commissioner Doda. We then contested this detention in the Jammu bench in the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. The proceedings remained ongoing here. But almost as soon as the case was concluded, the judge was transferred to Kashmir. We had to go to Kashmir to hear the case,” ANI reported.
