Jammu, Sept 14: AAP Constitutes Legal Panel unit president and sitting MLA from Doda East, Mehraj Malik, who was booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) earlier this month.
Malik, 37, was detained on September 8 by authorities in Doda district on charges of disturbing public order, a move that triggered widespread protests across the region. His arrest led to violent demonstrations in parts of Doda, forcing the administration to impose prohibitory restrictions under Section 144 and suspend both mobile internet and broadband services as a precautionary measure.
Senior AAP leader and former Delhi minister Imran Hussain confirmed the legal push in a post on X, stating that the party would “leave no stone unturned” in defending its legislator. “AAP stands strong with our MLA Mehraj Malik, arrested under PSA. A strong legal team led by Senior Advocate Nirmal K Kotwal, with Advocates Muzaffar Khan, Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad, and Appu Singh as assisting counsel, supported by Arvind Bandral, Joginder Singh Thakur, Gaurav Sarangal, Sandeep Sharma, Asim Hashmi, and M Tariq Mughal, will fight this case,” Hussain wrote.
Party insiders said the legal team, comprising some of the Valley and Jammu’s most prominent advocates, will first move for quashing the detention order in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. They also indicated the possibility of escalating the matter to the Supreme Court if necessary.
The arrest of Malik, who won the Doda East Assembly seat in 2024 with a significant margin, has become a rallying point for the AAP in Jammu and Kashmir. The party has alleged that the PSA has been selectively invoked to silence elected representatives critical of the government.