Senior lawyer withdraws from legal team announced by AAP to challenge Doda MLA's detention under PSA

JAMMU: Senior advocate Nirmal K Kotwal on Thursday recused himself from representing Aam Aadmi Party’s Doda MLA Mehraj Malik, who has been detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), citing certain videos on social media in which the legislator is purportedly heard praising terrorists Masood Azhar and Burhan Wani and stating that Jammu and Kashmir is not a part of India.

AAP neta and former Delhi minister Imran Hussain had on Sept 14 announced a 10-member legal team led by Kotwal to challenge Malik’s detention. The MLA was taken into custody on charges of disturbing public order on Sept 8 and lodged in Kathua district jail.

The other lawyers in the team are Muzaffar Khan, Sheik Shakeel Ahmad, Appu Singh, Arvind Bandral, Joginder Singh Thakur, Gaurav Sarangal, Sandeep Sharma, Asim Hashmi and M Tariq Mughal, Hussain said in his X post.

In a press statement, Kotwal, who is also the president of Jammu wing of the high court bar association, referred to Malik’s alleged objectionable remarks and said these videos and statements were never brought to his knowledge by AAP’s legal team while briefing him in the matter, and that he learned about it through social media platforms.

He said these utterances, if true, were extremely “insensitive, irresponsible and detrimental to national security, sovereignty and integrity of India” . “The unity and sovereignty of India are non-negotiable, and any act or statement undermining them cannot be condoned under any circumstances,” Kotwal said in his statement.

“As an officer of the court and as a citizen of this great nation, I place the interest of the nation above all else. In light of the same, and in keeping with my conscience, professional ethics and commitment to national integrity, I hereby recuse myself from representing Malik in the matter concerning the PSA proceedings,” he added.