Srinagar: The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) lone legislator in Jammu and Kashmir assembly Mehraj-ud-Din Malik was detained by police under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on Monday (September 8) and shifted to Bhaderwah jail in Doda district.The shocking arrest of the elected lawmaker of the Union territory under full camera gaze was condemned by the ruling National Conference, and the opposition People’s Democratic Party, People’s Conference and others.A video showed Malik – the president of AAP’s J&K unit and was elected from Doda East constituency of Jammu division in the 2024 J&K assembly election – being dragged by policemen and bundled into a van near the Dak Bungalow in Doda on Monday after he tried to resist the arrest.He had stayed overnight in the bungalow and was scheduled to visit the flood-hit areas of the district when he was arrested, according to people close to the AAP leader.Before his arrest, the AAP MLA, who has locked horns with the district administration in the past, urged his supporters to enforce a shutdown in the district, warning that the administration should be held responsible in case of any law and order problems.A massive protest broke out in Gandoh following the arrest with Malik’s supporters chanting slogans against the administration while demanding his immediate release.Despite repeated attempts, deputy commissioner Doda Harvinder Singh could not be reached for comments on the issue. According to reports, the police dossier against Malik has cited 18 first information reports (FIRs) and daily dairy reports to justify his preventive detention.In a letter sent to the J&K assembly speaker on Monday, Singh stated that Malik was booked under the PSA “on grounds of his activities being prejudicial to the maintenance of public order…after due consideration of all relevant materials, reports and circumstances that clearly establish(es)” that Malik “posed a grave threat to peace, public order and tranquility” in Doda district.“Preventive detention under the PSA was, therefore, found necessary in the interest of maintaining public order and safeguarding law and order in the region. The intimation is being submitted for your kind information and record, as required,” the letter sent on Monday states.First detention of an elected lawmaker under PSA since 2019This is the first instance, since the reading down of Article 370 by the Union government on August 5, 2019, that an elected lawmaker from Jammu and Kashmir has been detained under the preventive detention law, which has been described as a “lawless law” by Amnesty International.In 2019, the PSA was invoked to detain former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti along with other lawmakers, lawyers and businessmen ahead of the reading down of Article 370. Most of them spent months in detention.Since the erstwhile state was downgraded to a Union Territory, the district administrations in J&K have been run by the lieutenant governor who controls the IAS cadre. The administration only has to intimate the assembly speaker about the arrest of the Union Territory’s lawmakers.However, under sections 258 and 259 of the rules of the procedures and conduct of business of the state assembly in the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the speaker’s consent is not mandatory for arresting the lawmakers.The dramatic arrest took place in the backdrop of simmering tensions in the Chenab valley district over the shifting of a health centre from one building to another in Kencha village of Thathri block on September 5. The incident was live-streamed by Malik.The arrest came after the Doda police filed a case (FIR No 90/2025) at Gandoh police station under sections 221 (obstructing a public servant), 329(3) (criminal trespass), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), and 305 (e) (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against Malik and five other persons on the complaint of block medical officer of Thatri.In his complaint on Saturday, the BMO alleged that Malik and his supporters trespassed into the health centre on September 5, threatened officials and shifted some of the medical equipment, official records and government property to the residence of one of the accused without any official approval.The administration has said that an official committee approved a proposal to relocate the facility to another site. However, Malik has alleged that the district administration headed by deputy commissioner Singh was conniving to shift the building to the approved site due to vested interests.The AAP MLA has also claimed that the administration hasn’t paid rent to the building owner in Kencha village where the health centre was operating for the last two years.Justifying the denial of rent, the administration has reportedly claimed that the building was constructed on state land. However, it has not clarified why the “illegal” building was taken up on rent for running the health centre.In a social media post, Malik said on Sunday that he had urged the chief medical officer of Doda in June to shift the centre “on public demand to best suitable place”. “But DC wants to favour mafia and shift it to his CHAATUKAAR who comments ‘DC Doda Is Great’ on social media,” Malik posted on X.The AAP MLA, who is known for his loud-mouthed and often unsavoury remarks, also reportedly abused the deputy commissioner on social media over the controversy, while accusing the district administration of favouritism and corruption.‘Sad day for democracy’Condemning Malik’s detention, Peoples’ Conference chairman Sajad Lone said that it was “another assault on the democratic fabric of Jammu and Kashmir.”“This is a soulless democracy. The will of the people of J&K continues to be subservient. What is the fun of having elections if an elected representative cannot voice his sentiments. A very sad day for an already endangered democracy,” Lone said on X.Senior PDP leader and legislator of Pulwama constituency in south Kashmir, Waheed Para, posted on X: “Strongly condemn the use of PSA against MLA Mehraj Malik. Such draconian laws are weaponised to silence political voices & crush dissent. Such authoritarian measures are no way to resolve differences in a democracy.”NC legislator Salman Ali Sagar said that Malik’s arrest under PSA has set “a dangerous precedent” in Jammu and Kashmir”. Terming the arrest as “stifling (of) democracy” and “silencing (of) dissent” he said, “Free speech and political voices must be protected, not suppressed. #DemocracyUnderThreat #FreeMehrajMalik”