‘Stylish and khadak rowdy on social media’: Who is Dawood Nadaf? Acquitted after Karnataka HC flags 25% of police documents as illegible in case

BENGALURU: It’s a win that had little to do with the legalese. And certainly not with the documents since most of which was highly unreadable.

The high court has ordered release of Dawood Nadaf, who calls himself a “stylish and khadak rowdy” on social media, after discovering that nearly 25% police documents given to him were neither legible nor had relevant charges to make a case against him.

A division bench of Justices R Devdas and B Muralidhara Pai quashed the Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner’s June 3 preventive detention order under the Goonda Act, ruling that 185 of the 800 pages were so illegible that the detenue (Nadaf) could not even understand the case against him. Nadaf had been lodged in Mysuru prison since early June.

Nadaf’s wife Prathiba Talapati had challenged the June 3 order passed by the commissioner of police, Hubballi-Dharwad, under Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Slum Grabbers, and Video or Audio Pirates Act, 1985 (or, more popular as Goonda Act).

The petition argued that authorities “blatantly ignored” the HC’s own guidelines laid down in the Jayamma case — particularly the requirement to give the detenue “clear, readable documents”. The bench agreed, noting that not only were the pages unreadable, but the detention order itself had not even been served on Nadaf directly, but to his brother. The authorities did not specify which documents they relied upon.

Of the 17 cases cited, Nadaf has been acquitted in seven, and he had no convictions under IPC or BNS.
The latest case involved a video uploaded by the detenue in which he claimed to be “a stylish and khadak rowdy”, a claim the court was told did not amount to disruption of public order.

The govt advocate said Nadaf had been involved in extortion and had threatened a businessman with a knife — conduct that could create fear and disrupt public order. They pointed to pending attempt-to-murder and murder cases.

“This Court is, of the considered opinion that the detaining authorities should preclude from listing out all the cases for reliance. They would do better if they place reliance on the recent crimes registered against the detenue. If the detention order is based on the recent crimes registered against the detenue, it will satisfy the requirement of having a live link or close proximity to the conduct of the detenue, which could be a good ground for passing such orders of detention. Secondly, it will reduce the number of documents which would be required to be furnished to the detenue,” the court said.

It added the fewer the documents, the lesser the chances of furnishing illegible copies. “It is with this wisdom that the coordinate bench issued guidelines to the detaining authorities in the case of Smt Jayamma.

Unfortunately, neither the govt nor the authorities have heeded the directions issued. What we see as a consequence of such failure is that similar grounds are raised in every writ petition challenging detention orders, supplying illegible copies to the detenue,” it said.

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