New Delhi, September 8: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Monday strongly condemned the detention of the party’s lone MLA in Jammu and Kashmir, Mehraj Malik, under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), questioning whether seeking basic amenities for the people amounts to a criminal act.
“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 the Aam Aadmi Party,” Kejriwal said in a post on X in Hindi, adding that the MLA’s voice could not be silenced. “He will always remain the voice of the people, fighting for their rights. Jail, threats, and conspiracies cannot scare any soldier of AAP.”
The 37-year-old legislator from Doda was detained on Monday under the PSA, a law that permits detention without formal charges or trial for up to two years in certain cases. Officials said Malik was taken into custody at Dak Bungalow while he was preparing to visit flood-affected areas of his constituency. He was later shifted to the Bhaderwah district jail on the orders of the deputy commissioner after the police filed a dossier against him. This marks the first time a sitting MLA in Jammu and Kashmir has been held under the PSA.
Authorities justified the detention by citing public order concerns, noting that government employees in Doda had protested against Malik, accusing him of running a disparaging campaign against the deputy commissioner. However, Malik and his party rejected the charge, describing the move as politically motivated. Before being taken away, Malik uploaded a video message claiming he was being prevented from reaching people in desperate need after flash floods and torrential rains. “There are many areas in my constituency without road connectivity, ration or shelter after their homes were damaged, but I am being detained here,” he said.
Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia also targeted the Centre, calling the detention “the open dictatorship of the Modi-Shah government, which is seeped in hunger for power.” In a post on X, he remarked that those who speak for people’s rights are now treated as threats but warned that “history is witness, whenever dictatorship increases, revolution gains momentum.”
Malik, who created history in the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections by winning the Doda seat with a margin of over 4,500 votes, had secured AAP’s first-ever representation in the UT Assembly.