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A Delhi court on Saturday told the Central Bureau of Investigation to drop a look-out circular against ex Amnesty India chair Aakar Patel. The court said ‘the manner in which the LOC has been issued… shows lack of understanding of relevant law’ and suggested the CBI and its officers need ‘orientation… not only for sensitisation but to bring objectivity to their actions’.
The court upheld the April 7 order of an additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) – which directed the CBI to ‘immediately’ drop the notice against Patel and offer a written apology to the activist, who is a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government.
However, in today’s order special judge Santosh Snehi Mann dropped that bit.
“In the present case, on account of wrongly issued LOC, Patel was stopped at the airport and he could not take the scheduled flight. So observation of the ACMM about right of the accused to file claim for compensation is not out of context,” the court order said.
The order also noted: “Whether Patel would be held entitled to get compensation would be a subject matter of a separate independent trial before the court of competent jurisdiction.”
The court also cautioned the CBI that its powers of investigation and prosecution were not ‘unbridled’. “In glaring cases of excess(es) committed in actions, there may arise the need for fixing accountability,” the judge said, acknowledging also that in this case the notice was issued based ‘on wrong interpretation and understanding of law and not malice or ill will’.
On the question of an apology, the court said harassment suffered during the two times he was stopped at Bengaluru airport were ‘a component for consideration’, but the actual fixing of compensation is not a subject matter for the magistrate’s court that ordered the apology.
“Since determination of the compensation was not a subject matter before the ACMM, there was no scope to venture into the aspect of ‘mental harassment’. Therefore, direction of the trial court to the director (of the CBI) to give written apology to the accused, acknowledging the lapse on the part of his subordinates… cannot sustain and is liable to be set aside.”
After he was stopped for the second time, Patel had claimed he lost ₹6 lakh due to non-compliance with the April 7 order and filed a contempt plea on April 8. The same day CBI challenged the earlier order allowing Patel to leave and directing an apology by the agency.
Special judge Mann had stayed the observation on the apology and asked Aakar Patel not to leave the country without the court’s permission.
The look-out notice was issued in connection with alleged violations of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act, or FCRA.
A case to that effect had been registered against Amnesty India in 2019.
Patel was stopped by immigration authorities at Bengaluru International Airport on April 6 and 7 while he was boarding a flight to the United States.
The CBI has told the court it had sanction from the union government to prosecute Patel; such sanction is mandatory to prosecute an association for alleged FCRA violations.
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