Kerala High Court quashes preventive detention of 21-year-old; appoints advocate as mentor

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday set free a 21-year-old man who had been in preventive detention under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007 [Sreejith R v. State of Kerala]..A bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Shoba Annamma Eapen expressed doubts as to the veracity of the allegations against the man and summoned the man and his parents to the Court before arriving at its decision.Interestingly, taking note of the man's age, the bench appointed an advocate as his mentor."Since the detenu is before us, he has been set at free from this Court forthwith. Taking note of the age of the detenu who is present before us, we appoint, Adv.Leo Lukose as the Mentor for the detenu," the Court's judgment stated..The order was passed on a petition moved by the 21-year-old man's father seeking his release from preventive detention.The man was allegedly involved in seven crimes, the last of which occurred in July 2023, within the premises of a police station.Appearing before the Court today, the man submitted that a particular police officer had implicated him in several criminal cases merely because he refused to disclose the activities of his friends who were involved in several crimes.One of the crimes alleged against the man was that he had obstructed the official duties of the same police officer. Another case filed was under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, in which the Court noted that the accused could be set free upon the payment of a fine. .The High Court opined that such crimes alleged against the man could not be classified as those having an impact on public order. The other cases cited to detain the detenue could not justify his preventive detention since they dated back to 2021 and 2022, the Court further observed."If those crimes are excluded, there will be a long delay in proceeding against the detenu under the Kerala AntiSocial Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007 (for short, KAA(P) Act) as all other crimes were occurred between the years 2021 and 2022. Thus, we are of the view that the live link between the last prejudicial activity has been snapped for the purpose of KAA(P) Act and the detenu has to be set at liberty," the Court explained, while setting the man at liberty..Advocate KM Muhammed Hussain appeared for detenue's father (petitioner) while Public Prosecutor KA Anas represented the State. .[Read Judgment]