# Supreme Court quashes NSA detention in Sambhal case, fines UP Rs 10 lakh 2026-09-29T08:01:59+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 3 independent outlets The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the NSA preventive detention of Mulla Afroz, an accused in the November 2024 Sambhal violence, calling the detention order "illegally exercised" and imposing a Rs 10 lakh cost on the Uttar Pradesh government. A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu ruled that a confession recorded while an accused is in police custody cannot by itself justify preventive detention under the National Security Act, 1980. The court set aside both the Sambhal District Magistrate's October 13, 2025 detention order and the Allahabad High Court's June 2026 judgment that had upheld it. Afroz was arrested in January 2025 for his alleged role in clashes that killed four people during a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid. The Deccan Herald reports that counsel for Afroz argued the state relied on an inadmissible custodial confession, citing the Rekha and Ameena Begum rulings. The Hindu reports that Afroz's advocate told the court his client was coerced into confessing under threat of a staged encounter, and that the weapon allegedly recovered did not match the firearm used in the killing. The Supreme Court ordered the state to pay Rs 10 lakh in costs. A detailed judgment is awaited. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The Supreme Court did not merely quash the NSA detention: it imposed a Rs 10 lakh cost on the Uttar Pradesh government, a pointed rebuke. The rulings in Rekha v Tamil Nadu and Ameena Begum v Telangana formed the legal spine of the judgment, and the court specifically noted that a custodial confession cannot by itself justify preventive detention. The court will publish a detailed judgment later, that text will clarify how far the ruling constrains the use of the NSA in communal violence cases. ## Coverage - deccanherald.com (neutral report) Leads with the court's holding on custodial confession as illegal basis, foregrounds earlier bail and High Court reversal - indiatoday.in (neutral report) Foregrounds the fine and the court's 'illegal' finding, brief on legal reasoning - thehindu.com (neutral report) Most detail on the accused's coercion claim, weapon mismatch, and procedural chronology, frames the detention as 'illegally exercised' Tags: Mulla Afroz, National Security Act, Sambhal violence, Supreme Court of India, Uttar Pradesh Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/sc-quashes-nsa-detention-of-sambhal-accused-fines-up-rs-10-lakh/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/sc-quashes-nsa-detention-of-sambhal-accused-fines-up-rs-10-lakh/#story-in-brief