Having attained the dubious distinction of being the first legislator of Jammu and Kashmir to be detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Doda East, Mehraj Malik, 37, didn’t attract the stringent law overnight on September 8.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Doda East, Mehraj Malik, 37, was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act on Monday and lodged in the Kathua jail. (HT Photo)
The detention order issued by Doda deputy commissioner Harvinder Singh was addressed to the principal secretary, home, gave details about Malik’s continual unlawful conduct in contravention to the rule of law despite being an elected member of the legislative assembly.
The voluminous dossier prepared by the police gave details about 18 first information reports (FIRs) and 16 daily diary reports at various police stations against the AAP MLA.
“Mehraj Din Malik of Tandla in Chilly Pingal tehsil of Doda district is a history-sheeter of Gandoh police station and has become a habitual offender over time. He is involved in a number of criminal cases across the Union Territory. He is known to assert himself as a self-styled leader, frequently resorting to unlawful means to overrule government rules and laws, while making irresponsible statements as if the law of the land does not apply to him being a lawmaker. While doing so, he disturbs public peace and tranquility to get his ill-designs implemented by force, threats and violence,” read the detention order, accessed by HT.
Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), 1978, allows preventive detention for up to two years without trial to prevent acts that threaten state security or disrupt public order.
The detention order said Malik used social media handles, especially Facebook Live, to mount verbal and derogatory attacks on anybody who tried to stand up against his illegal demands. He spread false information to more than two lakh followers on his social media handles and instigated people, particularly the youth, to indulge in unlawful activities, create law and order problems, and disrupt public life, particularly in the sensitive areas of Doda district, it said.
Despite multiple legal action, including FIRs and other preventive measures against him, Malik neither mended his ways nor showed any inclination to desist from prejudicial activities, it said.
“Instead, he openly defies advice to act under the law and guide his followers in the right direction. Instead, he has been recorded inciting people to burn government offices and to act as Lashkars like (slain terrorist) Burhan Wani to get all illegal demands met through force, threats and heckling or physical assault,” it read.
Malik indulges in goondaism and has no respect for the law for he is habitual of hurting public sentiments, such as terming the followers of a particular religion as “addicted to liquor” or motivating youngsters to consume ‘chitta (drugs)’ to increase their intelligence quotient. “This has every propensity to benefit evil designs of organisations like militant groups and enemy states to create an environment of mistrust, infighting and pooling illegal gains from drug abuse to not just cause a public order situation, but also to wage a war against society and state,” it said.
The remaining part of the detention order stated that Malik’s continuous involvement in such criminal, anti-social, prejudicial, and inflammatory/provocative activities posed a serious and persistent threat to the maintenance of public order in the district, especially at such a time when it was is reeling under large scale damage to both public infrastructure as well as loss of five lives, 500 cattle, and over 700 private structures following the recent heavy rain.
The report said Malik’s deliberate actions were aimed at disturbing communal harmony, provoking unrest, and jeopardising the peaceful atmosphere in the region, and forcing the government mechanism to attend to his “synthetically created” public order issues, instead of reaching out to people with relief material, including medicines.
According to the report of the executive magistrate and police dossier, Malik has been booked for theft for keeping essential medicines locked when they were needed to be disbursed to the sick after 10 days of the health centre being in dilapidated condition due to a landslip. The area was disconnected due to the road closure and any amount of persuasion didn’t motivate the Malik from returning the medicine stock to the medical staff for further disbursal to the poor in the area.
