Stopped from travelling to US, former Amnesty International India chief Aakar Patel goes to court

Patel moved the application before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar seeking the issuance of directions to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to remove and withdraw the lookout circular (LOC) which was issued “without following due process of law and almost arbitrarily”. The court issued a notice to the CBI and will hear the matter Thursday.

The application moved by Patel’s lawyer advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir seeks a suspension of the LOC and to permit him to take up his foreign assignment and lecture series organised by various universities in the US.

The application stated that Patel was due to take part in interactive programmes and deliver lectures in many US universities, including New York University, University of Michigan, the Berkeley university among others. The plea stated that Patel is being prosecuted by the court of Sixth Additional District and Sessions Judge, Surat, in a private complaint lodged by a Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Purneshbhai Ishwarbhai Modi, regard to which he was allowed by the court on February 19 to travel abroad and accordingly his passport was released for the period from March 1 to May 30.

The CBI in 2019 registered a case against Amnesty International India for alleged Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) violations. The plea stated that Patel was not named in the FIR registered by the CBI on November 5, 2019, and had complied with the investigation. He was only called once by the CBI in this case.

Patel was due to travel to the US from Bengaluru on Wednesday and he was stopped by the immigration authorities on the ground who informed him that an LOC was issued against him.

Patel informed the authorities that he “did not have any travel restrictions imposed upon him from any authority except the court in Surat which had given him permission to travel, therefore the LOC was illegal and unnecessarily putting fetters on his fundamental rights”. He stated that he has an urgent need to travel as he has to deliver a lecture in the US on April 8.