‘Worthy of derision’: HC on Noida official who detained 25-year-old activist after workers’ protest

The Allahabad High Court has said that the Gautam Buddha Nagar district magistrate’s conduct in detaining a 25-year-old Delhi University graduate under the National Security Act after the workers’ protest in Noida “is worthy of derision”.

The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.

Quashing the preventive detention of Akriti Chaudhary on Wednesday, the High Court said District Magistrate Medha Roopam was “guilty of violating her oath of allegiance”.

Chaudhary has been in jail for nearly five months. She was detained on April 11 during the workers’ protest in Noida. A month later, the National Security Act was invoked against her.

Despite her detention under the Act being quashed, she remains in jail because she has been named in several first information reports in connection with the protest.

The police had claimed that Chaudhary and 60-year-old Satya Verma, a journalist from Lucknow, were “significant in instigating violence, arson and creating chaos” during the protest. It also claimed that Verma and Chaudhary “provoked” persons in different areas to “disturb public order”.

In its 15-page order on Wednesday, the High Court said that the district magistrate had detained Chaudhary only to “set an example out of the petitioner and deter others from exercising their right to...

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