The Supreme Court set aside a preventive detention order issued under the National Security Act against Mulla Afroz, an accused in the November 2024 Sambhal mosque violence, and slapped a ₹10 lakh cost on the Uttar Pradesh government.
A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu held that the detention order was based solely on a confessional statement made while in custody, violating constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
The court noted that the appellant had already suffered considerable loss of liberty despite being granted bail in connected cases, observing that the preventive detention process had become punitive.