HC dismisses plea to release person arrested under PD Act

A father’s writ petition to set his son free, who was arrested by the Cyberabad police last year under the Telangana PD Act-1986, was dismissed by the Telangana High Court on Tuesday (October 21, 2025).

A bench of Justices Moushumi Bhattacharya and Gadi Praveen Kumar, pronouncing verdict on a petition filed by Aziz Hassan Kotadia, said that it did not find any scope for interference in the orders of detention issued by the Cyberabad police on November 8 and 12 of 2024. The Court would not interfere with the subjective satisfaction of the Detaining Authority unless the findings were vitiated by arbitrariness or the absence of evidence of any form of perceived or actual bias, the bench said.

In the case of detenue Nazim Aziz Kotadia, “the evidence is clearly detailed in the grounds of detention,” the bench observed. Mr. Kotadia was arrested in February of 2024 on charge of committing robbery in the Chaderghat police station area of Hyderabad. Two months later, he was released on bail. 

The same year on June 22, he was arrested again by the Medchal police under Rachakonda Commissionerate. This time, he was accused of robbery and attempt to murder. In October, he was granted bail but remained in prison for failing to furnish sureties. A month later, the PD Act was invoked against him. With the invoking of the PD Act, he would not get bail for one year. 

Challenging detention, his father filed a writ petition of habeas corpus seeking a direction to set aside the orders issued detaining his son under the PD Act. Dismissing the petition, the bench said the “repeated and well-planned acts of the detenue are sufficient to raise the presumption of a feeling of threat and alarm amongst the general public”. 

Besides the offence of daylight robbery, the detenue caused bodily harm to the victims which amounted to a grave offence, the bench noted.