Court Setback For Ex Amnesty India Head, Also CBI Needn't Apologise Now

Former Amnesty India head Aakar Patel has been asked by a Delhi court to not leave the country without permission. The court has also put on hold yesterday's order that asked the CBI to "immediately" hand in a written apology to the writer-activist, who was stopped from flying to the US.

The Delhi sessions court acted on the CBI's petition challenging a special court's order yesterday giving relief to Aakar Patel, who had approached the court after he was stopped from flying to the US on Wednesday.

The case will be taken up again next Tuesday.

Effectively, Mr Patel can't go abroad for now and will not get any apology from the CBI.

Separately, Mr Patel sued the CBI for contempt after he was stopped again last night from flying to the US despite yesterday's court order setting aside the lookout circular – or airport alert - against him. This was the second time this week that he was stopped from taking his flight to the US.

A lookout circular is an alert issued by law enforcement agencies to authorities in airports and seaports to stop any wanted person from leaving the country.  

In his petition, Mr Patel said, "It is far from believable that an agency like CBI which is supposed to be available twenty four seven, being a law enforcement agency conveniently chose to sleep on the order of the Hon'ble Court despite the word 'immediately' used by the Hon'ble Court and being aware of the fact that the applicant was travelling at night on 07.04.2022."

The officer being unavailable "leaves no manner of doubt that (the CBI) deliberately and wilfully decided to not give effect to the order," Mr Patel said.

The writer-activist said he had informed the CBI that he had to leave at 11 pm on Thursday. A CBI source said the special court's order came around 4.30 pm yesterday and that the agency had been given 24 hours to comply with it.

CBI sources had told NDTV that they would challenge the special court's relief to Mr Patel.

Mr Patel tweeted that despite the court's order, he was stopped at Bengaluru airport again. "Have been stopped at immigration again. CBI has not taken me off their lookout circular," read his post.

A second tweet read, "Immigration at Bangalore airport says nobody at CBI answering their calls".

Yesterday, a special court had ordered the CBI to give Mr Patel a written apology in view of the "mental harassment".

Mr Patel had told the court that he was apparently on an "exit control list" because of a Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) case against Amnesty International. This happened even after he got his passport back and the go ahead from a court specifically for a trip to the US between March 1 and May 30.

The agency, however, said the clearance for travel came from a Gujarat court in a case registered by the Gujarat police. The airport alert, the agency said, was in connection with a CBI case against Amnesty International India and others for alleged violations linked to foreign funding.

The Special Court in Delhi strongly criticised the agency, saying a lookout circular should not have been issued "merely on the basis of apprehensions arising out of whims and fancies of the investigating agency".