Supreme Court quashes NSA detention of Sambhal violence accused

The Supreme Court of India has quashed the preventive detention of Mulla Afroz under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, and imposed a ₹10 lakh fine on the Uttar Pradesh government for what it termed an “illegal exercise of draconian power.”

A bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu set aside a previous Allahabad High Court judgment that had upheld the detention. The court ruled that an alleged confession made while in police custody cannot serve as the sole or valid basis for preventive detention, stating that such statements are inadmissible for establishing the “subjective satisfaction” required by law.

Mulla Afroz was accused of being a mastermind in the November 2024 Sambhal violence, which erupted following a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid and resulted in several deaths. Although Afroz had previously secured bail in the criminal case, the state had invoked the NSA to detain him in October 2025. The Supreme Court emphasized that preventive detention is not a punitive tool and must be based on relevant material rather than extra-judicial custodial statements.