The Allahabad High Court may have quashed the National Security Act (NSA) detention of Delhi University law student Aakriti Choudhary, but the 25-year-old remains behind bars, caught up in multiple criminal cases arising from the violence that followed a workers’ protest in Noida.Choudhary’s continued incarceration highlights the distinction between preventive detention under the NSA and the criminal cases registered against her. While the court’s order has set aside her NSA detention, it does not automatically bring an end to the FIRs in which she was arrested.Her lawyer, Manik Gupta, who has represented her since the cases began, told The Tribune that Choudhary had been arrested in multiple FIRs linked to the episode. She has secured bail in some of the cases, he said, but remains in custody as proceedings in others continue.According to Gupta, the NSA detention was invoked on the basis of several allegations, including that Choudhary participated in a March 22 meeting in Karawal Nagar where the Noida violence was allegedly planned. The defence, however, maintains that the gathering was an open meeting organised to inaugurate a library for workers’ children and was not a secret conspiracy meeting.The police also allegedly relied on WhatsApp groups of which Choudhary was a member. Gupta said these were old groups comprising Delhi University students and that, despite having access to her phone, the police could not produce before the court any message or video showing her calling for violence.Another allegation concerned a message Choudhary allegedly sent to activist Priyamvada asking her to come to the spot, saying that the police were acting illegally. Gupta said there was no evidence to establish that the message amounted to an attempt to incite violence.He also questioned attempts to link Choudhary to violence in Manesar and Gurugram, pointing out that she was neither an accused nor arrested in that case.For Choudhary, the legal battle has also disrupted her education. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in history and is currently a first-year student at the Faculty of Law, Delhi University, according to her lawyer.Gupta said Choudhary has remained “a fighter” despite her incarceration and has also helped him connect with workers in jail who do not have legal representation.“She is not just fighting for herself but for all other workers who are in jail,” Gupta said.The lawyer said he broke down when the judgment was pronounced, adding that he had gone through the chargesheets in the cases and believed there was little evidence against the accused.For Choudhary, however, the larger legal battle is far from over. While the NSA detention has been quashed, the criminal cases arising from the Noida violence continue to keep the DU student in custody.