New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday, September 29, quashed the preventive detention of Mulla Afroz, accused of being the mastermind of the 2024 communal violence in Sambhal.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu held that an accused's confession statement made in police custody cannot serve as the basis for detaining them under the National Security Act (NSA). The court imposed a cost of Rs 10 lakh on the Uttar Pradesh government for passing the illegal preventive detention order.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had invoked the stringent NSA against Mulla Afroz in October 2025 for his alleged role in the violence.

The NSA empowers the Centre and states to detain individuals to prevent them from acting in a manner "...