The Supreme Court on September 29 quashed the preventive detention of Mulla Afroz under the National Security Act and set aside the Allahabad High Court judgment that had upheld it. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu also imposed ₹10 lakh in costs on the Uttar Pradesh government for the illegal detention order.

Incident/policy context. Original factual graphic; read the report for attribution and the full account.
Incident/policy context. Original factual graphic; read the report for attribution and the full account.

The bench held that a confession allegedly made in police custody could not, by itself, supply the basis for preventive detention. It also found that the detaining authority had not appropriately considered the facts. Preventive detention is meant to prevent an anticipated threat to public order rather than punish a completed offence, and the court concluded that the power had been exercised illegally in this case.

Documented milestone. This historical record does not establish the current final outcome.
Documented milestone. This historical record does not establish the current final outcome.

Afroz is an accused in criminal cases arising from violence during a court-ordered survey of Sambhal’s Shahi Jama Masjid on November 24, 2024, in which four people died. Police arrested him about 54 days later. The Allahabad High Court granted him bail in one case on September 9, 2025, without deciding the merits, after which the Sambhal district magistrate issued the NSA detention order on October 13. The High Court upheld that preventive detention on June 8, 2026.

Before the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh government argued that material showing a likelihood of future violence or disruption of public order was enough to justify detention. Afroz challenged reliance on the alleged custodial confession and argued that multiple pending cases could not by themselves support detention. The court’s September 29 ruling resolves the NSA detention appeal; it does not acquit Afroz in the underlying criminal cases or determine whether the prosecution allegations are true.

The responsible public authorities in this detention record are the Sambhal district magistrate and the Uttar Pradesh government, not the Union government. The ₹10 lakh direction is a judicial accountability measure against the state for the detention order. It should not be described as a verdict on every police action during the 2024 Sambhal violence.