Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 20: High Court upheld the detention order of an Overground Worker (OGW) of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) citing the authorities responsible for maintenance of public order are sole judges of national security.
Justice M A Chowdhary dismissed the plea of detenue Rouf Ahmad Lone of Lelhara, Kakapora, Pulwama challenging his detention order dated 30.04.2025 passed by the District Magistrate Pulwama and upheld his preventive detention.
“Those who are responsible for national security or for maintenance of public order must be the sole judges of what the national security, public order or security of the State requires. Preventive detention is devised to afford protection to society. The object is not to punish a man for having done something but to intercept before he does it and to prevent him from doing. Justification for such detention is suspicion or reasonable probability and not criminal conviction, which can only be warranted by legal evidence”, the court recorded.
Having glance at the grounds of detention the court said that his inclination towards secessionist elements gave him a place in LeT, of which he became an active member and was involved in carrying various anti-national activities alongwith other operatives of the outfit.
“The detaining authority after keeping in view the activities of the detenue highly prejudicial to the security of the State, detained him under preventive custody, in terms of the impugned order, which is under challenge in the present petition”, reads the judgment.
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