The Patna High Court has granted bail to two persons, allegedly members of the
Popular Front of India (PFI), who were accused of planning to cause disturbance during the proposed visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Patna.
The Division Bench of Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Justice SB PD Singh passed the order on criminal appeals filed by the accused challenging the Special Judge order, which denied them bail.
The High Court cited a Supreme Court order, by which an alleged PFI member was granted bail. It said in Paragraph 27, the Apex Court prima facie held that in the charge sheet, there was no allegation that the appellant was a member of terrorist gang or organisation.
The ruling equally applied in the present case as there was no such allegation that the appellants were members of a terrorist gang or an organisation. The Popular Front of India (PFI), of which the appellants were said to be the members, had not been declared a terrorist organisation within the meaning of Section 2(m) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, said the Bench.
The Act would also be applicable to the case of the appellants, it added.
The High Court further observed that the rigours of Section 43D(5) of UAPA would not stand against the prayer of the accused for grant of bail.
As per the prosecution, on July 11, 2022, the informant got an information that some miscreants were planning to do some occurrence during the proposed Patna visit of PM Modi and doing training for a fortnight for the purpose.
Based on this information, the Officer-in-Charge brought it to the notice of the senior officers. On reaching the spot, he noticed that some unknown persons were holding meeting on the second floor of the Ahmed Palace during the past two months and visit of unknown persons were frequent there. In the meantime, Md Jalaluddin and Athar Parvez, who were the owners of ‘Ahmed Palace’, came there.
On search, a literature was found namely “India 2047 towards Rule of Islamic India, Internal Document not for circulation”. Thirty pamphlets written in Urdu and 25 written in Hindi of PFI, 49 flags made of clothes, red, green and white bearing blue colour star on the flag, booklets printed in Urdu were also found. On enquiry, Athar Parvez allegedly said that he was an active member of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Regarding the Appellants, it was alleged that they were involved in channelising the illegal funds to PFI from UAE and Saudi Arabia to various suspects in India for committing terrorist acts. Hence, they were arrested.
The High Court said that there was no prima-facie material on the record that the money said to have been sent by the appellants in the account of Sajjad Alam were used for illegal activities post-ban period.
The Bench further considered the fact that the appellants have been in custody for over two years and in case of Athar Parwez, the Supreme Court, taking note of the period of incarceration, decided to enlarge him on bail.