Verma has challenged his preventive detention under the National Security Act, 1980 (NSA) for his alleged participation in the workers' protest in Noida in April this year.The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Union of India, the state of Uttar Pradesh and the Noida district magistrate in a Habeas Corpus petition filed by journalist Satyam Verma.Verma has challenged his preventive detention under the National Security Act, 1980 (NSA) for his alleged participation in the workers’ protest in Noida in April this year.A division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev sought the replies of the respondents and posted the matter for October 7 for the next hearing.The petition seeks quashing of the detention order and consequential orders as well as a direction for Verma’s immediate release and compensation for his alleged illegal detention.The main ground raised in the plea is that the detention order was allegedly based on a “factually impossible” premise that Verma was involved in the violence in Noida on April 13.The petition claims that, according to CCTV footage and call detail records (CDRs), Verma was approximately 500 km away in Lucknow, where Hasanganj Police allegedly detained him at 2.14 pm on the same day.The plea describes this as an “ironclad alibi” and argues that an NSA detention order based on “physically impossible and demonstrably false premises” is liable to be quashed.Story continues below this adIt further alleges that the investigating officer deliberately suppressed the CDRs and CCTV footage from Hasanganj police station from the detaining authority. The petition also contends that Verma was not named in any of the 11 FIRs relied upon by the state for the detention.According to the plea, the detention order rests upon statements allegedly made by a co-accused/witness named Mangal while in police custody. The petitioner argues that such statements are inadmissible in law and could not form the basis of the subjective satisfaction required for preventive detention.The petition further disputes the state’s alleged characterisation of Verma’s professional income as “riot funding”. It contends that his income for nearly 20 years was earned through his profession, received through formal banking channels and declared in income tax returns.The plea alleges that the NSA was consequently used to “crush a spontaneous and lawful labour demand”.Story continues below this adVerma has also relied upon an earlier Allahabad High Court order concerning co-detenue Akriti Chaudhary. The plea states that the court had quashed a similarly worded preventive detention order passed on the same date by the same authority and arising from the same agitation.On this basis, Verma claims that his case stands on an “even stronger footing” and seeks quashing of the detention orders on the ground of parity.