Jammu and Kashmir's lone AAP MLA detained under PSA

JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Aam Aadmi Party ’s J&K unit chief and Doda MLA Mehraj Malik was on Monday detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on charges of disturbing public order.

While the unprecedented action came amid a massive protest against Malik, the lone AAP MLA in J&K Assembly, by govt employees across the district for allegedly using abusive language against Doda district’s deputy commissioner (DC) Harvinder Singh and using a social media platform to target him, the move drew condemnation from political parties, with CM Omar Abdullah describing it as an assault on democracy.

“There is no justification for detaining Mehraj Malik under PSA. He’s not a threat to ‘public safety’ & using this discredited law to detain him is wrong. If the unelected govt can use its powers against an elected representative like this then how does anyone expect the people of J&K to continue to have faith in democracy (sic.),” Omar said in a post on X.

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal also took to X and asserted that the MLA would continue raising his voice for the people. “Is demanding a hospital for the people of your area such a grave crime that an elected MLA has to be thrown in jail for it? Mehraj Malik is the lion of AAP,” Kejriwal said in his post.

BJP and Sikh bodies, however, had criticised the MLA’s abusive behaviour with public functionaries, terming him a “habitual trouble maker” and calling for action against him.

PAS was previously invoked against a number of political functionaries in J&K, including former CMs Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who were detained after the abrogation of Article 370 and held in prolonged custody under the Act, an administrative law that allows a person to be kept in preventive detention for up to two years without charge or trial.

Malik, who was held at Dak Bungalow before being shifted to district jail, addressed his followers online, saying, “I am fighting for people’s rights. It is not my family’s fight, it’s the fight for my people.”

The row erupted after a police case was registered against the MLA under BNS for removing medical equipment and drugs from a govt-run Ayushman Arogya Mandir, Health and Wellness Centre, in Kencha village. In a statement online, Malik said he had already submitted a request to the Doda chief medical officer to relocate the health centre, as demanded by the people, to a more suitable site. But, at Singh’s behest, an FIR was filed against him for theft, he alleged, accusing the DC of attempting to “favour the mafia”.

Protesting govt employees condemned the use of derogatory language and baseless allegations against the DC, terming them as “unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable”, and lauded the officer for his exceptional service, integrity and dedication to public welfare, especially in flood-hit hilly district. The protesters accused the AAP legislator of habitually hurling abuses at senior govt officers and provoking youths against the official machinery.