| New Delhi, Jan. 7: The Supreme Court has set aside a preventive detention order passed by the district magistrate of Imphal West, Manipur, against a member of the banned Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, Yumman Somendro, saying it was passed "casually" and based on the state government's fears about him getting bail. The apex court ruled that preventive detention orders could not be passed just because the state apprehended that a person accused of a crime might get bail or because a person had been charged with a serious offence in the past. The ruling was the outcome of a petition filed by Somendro's wife, Yumman Ongbi Lembi Leima, challenging his detention order. The detention order was passed under the National Security Act, 1980, on January 31, 2011, and was approved by the Manipur governor on February 7 the same year. The governor, in his order dated March 18, 2011, confirmed the detention order and fixed the detention period at 12 months from that date. The order was based on the subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority that the detainee was likely to be released on bail by regular criminal courts in the near future. Somendro's wife had earlier challenged the order in the Imphal bench of Gauhati High Court without success. He had been arrested earlier on March 21, 1994, in connection with another case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, but was released on bail. He was again arrested on June 29, 1995, on charges of extortion and then released on bail on July 8, 1998. On January 16, 2011, he was arrested for the third time on charges of murdering the then Manipur CBSE chairman, N. Kunjabihari Singh. He was produced before the magistrate on January 17, 2011 and was remanded in police custody till January 31, 2011. | 
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