Court upholds magistrate court order setting aside LOC issued against Aakar Patel

New Delhi [India], April 16 : A Sessions court of Delhi on Saturday upheld a magistrate court order setting aside a Lookout Order (LOC) issued against former Amnesty Chief Aakar Patel.
The CBI through its revised petition had challenged the order asking the probe agency to withdraw a Lookout Circular (LOC) issued against the chair of Amnesty International India Board Aakar Patel and apologies to him.
However, Special Judge Santosh Snehi Mann on Saturday set aside the magistrate court direction regarding an apology of the CBI Director and said "direction given by the Trial Court in the impugned order dated April 7, 2022 to the Director, CBI to give a written apology to the respondent accused, acknowledging the lapse on the part of his subordinate, is set-aside.
The Court, while upholding the trial court order regarding setting aside of LOC issued against Aakar Patel said, the respondent accused will appear before the Trial Court within a week and shall furnish a bond for his appearance under Section 88 of CrPC to the satisfaction of the trial court.
The respondent accused (Aakar Patel) will not leave the country without permission of the Trial Court, added the Court.
A Sessions Court on Tuesday reserved the order on the Central Bureau of Investigation's revision petition challenging the Magistrate order directing CBI to withdraw the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against Aakar Patel in connection with the violation of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).
Advocate Tanveer Ahmad Mir, appeared for Patel, opposed the contentions raised in the reply filed by CBI, and submitted that CBI's reply is bad in law and beyond the provisions of the Constitution.
He also questioned why the sanction has come now "because the situation has got confabulated. They file a chargesheet and only dates were given. The date is not tomorrow. They didn't do what they were ordered to do."
Earlier, the trial (Magistrate) court had directed Aakar Patel not to leave India without prior permission while staying an order directing the CBI director to file an apology.
A Special Magistrate Court, last week, directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to withdraw the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against journalist and human rights activist Aakar Patel in connection with the violation of the FCRA.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar of Rouse Avenue Court said last week, "Considering the facts and circumstances of this case and the law laid down by the High Court of Delhi, this court is of the considered view that the LOC is liable to be set aside. Therefore, the CBI is directed to withdraw/recall the LOC issued against the accused immediately."
During the arguments, the CBI opposed the application saying that the charge sheet was filed without arrest and that the application was moved in anticipation that Patel will flee from justice; there was the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice if he was allowed to leave the country.
Patel, who was stopped at Bengaluru Airport from boarding a flight to the United States on Wednesday last week, moved the court and sought removal and withdrawal of LOC issued against him.
The former chief of Amnesty International India took to their Twitter account, which is not verified, to tweet: "Stopped from leaving India at Bangalore airport. Am on the exit control list. Got passport back through court order specifically for this trip to the US."
Notably, in September 2020, Patel was booked under Sections 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence); 295 A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings); spreading a fake message with the intent to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community under 505 (1) B, 505 (1) C; Defamation under Sections 499, and 500 of the Indian Penal Code for three of his tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and Ghanchi caste.
In June 2020, an FIR was registered against Patel under Sections 117 (abetting commission of an offence by the public or by more than 10 persons), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), and 505-1-B (intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the JC Nagar police station over his controversial comments on social media under charges pertaining to provocation with intent to cause riots.