Hours after a Delhi court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to withdraw the Look Out Circular (LOC) against Aakar Patel, the former chief of Amnesty International India, he said that he was stopped yet again from flying out of the Bengaluru airport on Thursday, April 7. “Have been stopped at immigration again. CBI has not taken me off their look out circular. Immigration at Bangalore airport says nobody at cbi answering their calls. Will move court again tomorrow if I have to (sic),” he said in a series of tweets.
On Wednesday, April 6, Patel was stopped from flying out of the Bengaluru airport by Immigration, as he was about to board a flight for the US. He was told that the cause for this was that the CBI had issued an LOC against him for an alleged violation of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA). On Thursday, he moved a Delhi court seeking withdrawal of the LOC, and the court ordered the CBI to withdraw the same.
The court said a "written apology" from Director CBI on behalf of the agency acknowledging the lapse on the part of his subordinate to Patel would help uphold the trust and confidence of the public in the premier institution. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar passed the order and directed the probe agency to file a compliance report by April 30.
The court noted that apart from the monetary loss, the applicant had suffered mental harassment as he was not allowed to travel at the scheduled time. “The applicant can approach the court or other forum for monetary compensation. This court is of the considered opinion that in this case, a written apology from the head of the CBI i.e. Director, CBI acknowledging the lapse on the part of his subordinate, to the applicant would go a long way in not only healing the wounds of the applicant but also upholding the trust and confidence of the public in the premier institution,” the judge said.
The judge further said that the LOC is a “deliberate act of the investigating agency to put restrictions on the valuable rights of the accused.”
Meanwhile, the CBI has reportedly decided to challenge the Delhi court’s order and is expected to file an appeal on Friday morning, April 8.