Delhi Court Directs CBI To Withdraw Look Out Circular Issued Against Aakar Patel

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar passed the order and directed the probe agency to document a compliance report.

Amnesty international India chief Aakar Patel

New Delhi: Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday has directed the CBI to immediately withdraw the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against former Amnesty International India chief Aakar Patel in a case of an alleged violation of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act.

On 6 April, the court had issued notice to the CBI. Aakar Patel had challenged the lookout circular issued by the CBI. In the petition, Aakar Patel had sought permission to visit America till May 30. It was said in the petition that Patel has to give some lectures in America. Patel was stopped by immigration authorities at the Bangalore International Airport on Wednesday while he was boarding a flight to the US.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar passed the order and directed the probe agency to document a compliance report.

Prior during the contentions, the CBI went against the application of Patel saying there was a probability of him escaping from justice if he was permitted to leave the country.

The CBI said that Patel was highly influential.

“We are not demanding for arrest. We are saying he should not cross the country,” the agency said.

The court noticed the CBI accommodation that the probe was going on starting around 2021, and said assuming Patel was a flight risk, he would have been captured.

The court said he could have run away during the investigation.

Patel's counsel had gone against the CBI's dispute, claiming that citizens’ rights are being railroaded by the office.

“It is time that we send a suitable reply to law enforcement agencies and society,” he told the court.

Patel's application has additionally looked for the court's consent to visit the US to take up his unfamiliar task and talk series coordinated by different colleges till May 30.

The application asserted that the move was made regardless of a request by a Gujarat court giving him consent to travel abroad.

(With PTI inputs)