Court pulls up Delhi Police for its callousness in UAPA case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court pulls up Delhi Police for callousness in a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. It said that the bail application of a man accused in a case under the UAPA was kept pending and the police was unable to explain why a sanction order regarding telephonic intercepts was weeded out.
In this case, the accused was arrested by the police who claimed he was part of a Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) racket and relied heavily on intercepted phone calls to make their case against him.
According to The Indian Express, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana granted interim bail to the accused till the next date of hearing. The court said that it is “not inclined to pass any orders on merits upon the basis of half baked information furnished by the investigating agency” but at the same time was “quite conscious of the sacrosanct rights of the accused.”
The court has asked the Union Home Secretary to look into the status of the sanction order and apprise it. The Special Commissioner (Special Cell) has also been asked to look into the matter and apprise the court about the circumstances under which the sanction order was weeded and not placed on record in the chargesheet, The Indian Express reported.
The court noted that the records showed that no sanction order with respect to the intercepted conversations was placed on record. However, there was communication available on record which showed a mention of the sanction order.
The court had already adjourned the matter for two dates for want of the sanction order. On Tuesday, the court said that ACP, Special Cell filed a “very hazy and sketchy reply intimating the court that the said sanction order has been weeded out”. It said that the reply “unfortunately, raises more queries to be answered rather than help the court resolve the issue with respect to the said sanction order.” It made these observations since there was no clarity on why the sanction order was not placed on record.