After being released from the District Jail Kathua, Aam Aadmi Party MLA, Mehraj Malik on Tuesday said that it is high time to rise above “religious divisions” and “focus on humanity.”
“My political struggle is aimed at reform and public welfare in Jammu and Kashmir and it will continue and will not change,” Malik told reporters after his release from Kathua jail following his detention was quashed under the Public Safety Act by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
“I will continue raising issues of the people,” he said. “Justice has been delivered and I thank the judiciary,” he said, adding that time ultimately reveals the truth.
Urging people to remain patient, the AAP MLA assured them that his public outreach will soon be resumed after consulting his team, adding, “we will plan properly and engage with people across the region and there is no need for haste.”
However, Justice Mohd Yousuf Wani, High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh directed authorities to “release the petitioner-detenu forthwith from his preventive detention”, setting aside the detention order issued by the Doda district magistrate last year on September 8 against the MLA.
Malik, who is also the president of Jammu and Kashmir AAP unit was detained under the PSA in September for allegedly disturbing public order and was subsequently lodged in Kathua jail.
On September 24, he filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court, challenging his detention and seeking Rs 5 crore as compensation.
On February 23, the high court had reserved its order in the case.
Meanwhile hundreds of his supporters alongwith party leaders and workers joined Malik outside the Kathua Jail and accompanied him to Jammu to his official residence where he addressed them assuring that his voice for the people will never be suppressed.
