Aakar Patel was stopped from leaving India due to the look-out circular
A Delhi court has told the Central Bureau of Investigation to withdraw a look-out circular issued against former Amnesty India chief Aakar Patel. The look-out circular, or LoC, has been preventing Mr Patel from going abroad. 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.
The court also said the CBI need not apologise - as directed by a trial court earlier - to the human rights campaigner, who is also a fierce critic of the Narendra Modi government.
The CBI was ordered by a court on April 7 to "immediately" drop the lookout circular or airport alert against Mr Patel, who was stopped from flying to the US on April 6. The investigating agency was also asked to hand over a written apology to Mr Patel, given the "mental harassment" he had suffered.
When Mr Patel went to the airport after the court order, he was again stopped from flying out.
The centre has already given the go-ahead to the CBI to prosecute Mr Patel for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, paving the way for a special court to start proceedings on a chargesheet filed in December last year.
Separately, Mr Patel had sued the CBI for contempt after he was stopped again from flying to the US despite the earlier court order setting aside the airport alert against him.
In the earlier order, the special court in Delhi had strongly criticised the CBI, saying a look-out circular should not have been issued "merely on the basis of apprehensions arising out of whims and fancies of the investigating agency".