Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has quashed the preventive detention of a man wrongly jailed in place of his namesake in Anantnag district.
Imtiyaz Ahmad Ganie, a resident of south Kashmir’s Anantnag, was detained in April 2024 under orders of the District Magistrate, citing an FIR registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Arms Act, and the Explosives Act. Authorities claimed the detention was necessary to maintain peace during the 2024 general elections.
However, a bench of Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi found that the FIR actually pertained to another man, Imtiyaz Ahmad Wani, not Ganie. Calling the detention a result of “mistaken identity,” the court said the error rendered the order “illegal and invalid.”
Hearing Ganie’s habeas corpus petition, Justice Kazmi criticised the authorities for “shamelessly” defending the mistake and noted the detention order showed a “clear non-application of mind.”
The court observed that the records indicated authorities intended to detain another individual but wrongfully incarcerated Ganie instead. It ruled that such a lapse “goes to the very root” of the order and cannot stand in law.
Ordering his immediate release from Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu, the court directed that Ganie be freed without delay.
