Kerala High Court sets aside preventive detention of BJP councillor R Suguthan under KAAPA

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday set aside the preventive detention order passed under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act (KAAPA), 2007, against Thiruvananthapuram Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Sugathan R [Aswathi GR v State of Kerala & ors].

Justices Anil K Narendran and Muralee Krishna S delivered the judgment on a petition filed by Sugathan's wife, Aswathi GR challenging the detention order passed against him on June 8.

"Writ petition is allowed. Registry shall communicate the order to the 4th Respondent (Superintendent, Central Prison & Correctional Home, Viyyur, Thrissur)," the Court said.

Suguthan is a BJP councillor from Ward Number 20 of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.

He was placed under preventive detention by an order passed by the District Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram. He was subsequently detained on June 9 and lodged at the Viyyur Central Prison.

The State government later confirmed his detention by an order dated July 6 based on the opinion of the KAAPA Advisory Board.

His wife then approached the High Court contending that the detention was illegal and alleged that Sugathan's detention had not been properly communicated to him.

She alleged that several pages of the documents relied upon for his detention were either missing or illegible, preventing Sugathan from effectively challenging his detention.

She also stated that relevant materials concerning the criminal cases against him had not been considered by the detaining authority.

The detention authority had taken into account seven criminal cases registered against Sugathan at Vattiyoorkavu Police Station between 2019 and 2026. Six had been chargesheeted and were pending trial, while one case registered in 2026 was under investigation.

She disputed the circumstances surrounding several of these cases and stated that some arose due to counter-cases while one stemmed from a political protest.

Earlier, Suguthan had approached the Court in a different proceeding after he was unable to take his oath as a councillor because of his detention.

The Court had permitted Suguthan to take the oath inside the prison while observing that the mandate of the electorate could not be defeated merely because an elected representative was under preventive detention.

Senior counsel Saurav Mishra along with advocates Suvin R Menon, Parshathy SR, Govind P, Achuth Krishnan R and Cristy Therasa Suresh, appeared for the wife.

Director General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali, special public prosecutor Rasheed C Nooranad and senior public prosecutor Laliza TY represented the state.

A detailed copy of the order is awaited.