SC quashes Mulla Afroz’s NSA detention over Sambhal violence, imposes Rs 10 lakh cost on Yogi Govt

Millat Times Desk

29 September 2026 (Publish: 12:03 PM IST)

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the preventive detention of a man accused of being involved in the November 2024 Sambhal violence under the National Security Act, saying a confession alone could not justify such detention.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu held that a “confessional statement cannot be the sole ground for detention” and that the surrounding circumstances had to be considered.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs 10 lakh on the Uttar Pradesh government for what it described as the “illegal preventive detention order” against Mulla Afroz.

Afroz was arrested about 54 days after the violence. Although the Allahabad High Court later granted him bail, the Uttar Pradesh government ordered his detention under the National Security Act on October 13, 2025, relying on a confession he had allegedly made while in police custody.

The Supreme Court set aside a June order of the Allahabad High Court that had upheld Afroz’s detention, holding that the detaining authority had “illegally exercised” its power.

The National Security Act allows authorities to detain a person without trial for up to 12 months in certain circumstances.

The Supreme Court had reserved its order on September 8 after questioning whether an alleged custodial confession could form the basis for preventive detention.

“Detention order is preventive, not punitive,” the bench had said during the hearing, adding that such powers could not be invoked to defeat every challenge to a detention order. The court had also said there had to be material on the basis of which the detaining authority could reach the required subjective satisfaction.

The Sambhal violence broke out on November 24, 2024, after protests over a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi. The survey was ordered in a suit claiming that the mosque was built in 1526 by Mughal emperor Babur on the site of an ancient Hindu temple.

Five people were killed in the violence. Local residents have alleged that four of them died in police firing, an allegation disputed by authorities.

The case has since been the subject of several legal proceedings involving the mosque survey, the violence and the arrests that followed.