India, April 28 -- Exactly seven months and 20 days after his arrest, Mehraj Malik, the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Doda East and the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit president, walked out of Kathua jail on Tuesday morning.

His release came a day after justice Mohammad Yousuf Wani of the Jammu and Kashmir high court quashed his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), declaring the order illegal.

Malik had been held since September 8 last year on allegations of disturbing public order, a move chief minister Omar Abdullah described as a "gross misuse of law."

Accompanied by his legal team, led by advocate Appu Singh Slathia, Malik expressed relief as he left Kathua for Jammu.

His counsel said the court's decision to set aside the Doda D...