Uttar Pradesh: High court nixes Popular Front of India members’ plea for CBI probe

LUCKNOW: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has declined to accept that the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of UP Police was was acting in biased and mala fide manner in pursuing investigation against two Popular Front of India members hailing from Kerala -- Anshad Badarudheen and Firoj K C. The court turned down a plea to transfer the probe in the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Dismissing a petition moved by Anshad, which was filed through his brother Azhar, the bench quoted an apex court verdict saying, “The decision to investigate or the decision on the agency which should investigate, does not attract the principle of natural justice. The accused cannot have a say in who should investigate the offence he is charged with.”
The bench comprising Justice D K Upadhyay and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava also refused to agree that using term of ‘South Terror' on a portal amounted to prejudiced and biased intention of the authorities of the UP Government and ATS against the petitioner.
“The use of such term would not per se import element of malice or bias towards the petitioner. However, we view this fact with profound concern and disapprove use of such term,” said Justice Srivastava.In its order, the bench further said, “The petitioner has been unable to show that the power of investigation has been exercised by the investigating officer of ATS in a mala fide manner. It is also not found to be a case of abuse of power and non-compliance by the investigating agency of the provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure. The investigation has also been concluded by the ATS.”
ATS had registered a case against the petitioner Anshad and another on February 16, 2021 in Lucknow. The two were arrested from Kukrail forest area in Lucknow and booked for various offences of IPC, Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act 1908, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act .
Arguing for the petitioner, advocates Mohammad Tahir and Mohammad SM Alavi had submitted that the arrest was false as the duo were picked from Bihar and then booked in Lucknow. It was also argued that after the registration of FIR , the central government was required to pass an order on how to investigate the offences, but in the present case , there was no such order was passed by the Centre and hence the charge sheet filed by ATS was without jurisdiction and liable to rejected.
However, the bench rejected the said plea of the petitioner while accepting the argument of additional government advocate Shiv Nath Tilahri observing, “In the instant case, admittedly, the Central Government has not issued any direction under Section 6 (4) or Section 6 (5) of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act to get the Scheduled Offences investigated by the agency, therefore, the authority and power of the state government to investigate and prosecute any Scheduled Offence remains unaffected."
The bench also did not agree with the plea of the petitioner that the special ATS court took cognizance in an illegal manner.