Jammu and Kashmir’s lone Aam Admi Party MLA from Doda, Mehraj Malik, was apprehended by the police on Monday on charges of disturbing public order and detained under the stringent Public Safety Act for one year.
He is the first sitting legislator in Jammu and Kashmir to have been detained under the PSA, which allows the administration to keep a person under preventive detention without trial, if it is satisfied that his remaining free might disturb public order and peace or threaten security of the state.
Sent to Bhaderwah jail, Malik was named in 18 FIRs and 16 daily diary (DD) reports at different police stations in Doda district, officials said. They claimed he was increasingly causing a disturbance to public order, especially at a time when the district administration was busy initiating relief measures to people hit by recent heavy rains and flash floods in far-off areas of the hilly district.
Malik has been accused of attacking officials on duty, locking them inside their offices, and abusing and intimidating them in public, officials said, adding that he is also facing charges of abduction.
The imposition of PSA will not affect his membership in the J&K Legislative Assembly since he has not been convicted in any of the cases registered against him so far.
Mali was elected as an MLA from Doda during the 2024 assembly elections after he defeated his BJP rival, Gajay Singh, by 4,538 votes, giving AAP its maiden entry in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Before this, he was elected as a member of the Doda District Development Council from Kahara during the maiden DDC elections held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020. After his election to the Legislative Assembly, he resigned from the DDC.
