A Delhi court on Saturday upheld an order that directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to withdraw the lookout circular (LOC) against Aakar Patel, the India Board Chair of Amnesty International.
A magisterial court had directed the CBI on April 7 to withdraw the circular immediately. The court had further directed the agency to issue an apology to Patel and to file a compliance report by April 30.
On Saturday, however, Special Judge Santosh Snehi Mann set aside the earlier direction issued to the CBI director to make a written apology to Patel for the agency's actions.
Earlier, the CBI had challeged the magisterial court's order. Judge Mann had then stayed the earlier order until Patel filed his reply to CBI's challenge. Now the order the court stayed has been upheld in part.
Patel had approached the magisterial court submitting that he was stopped by immigration authorities at the Bangalore International Airport while boarding a flight to the US. He had claimed that the action was taken despite an order by a Gujarat court granting him permission to travel abroad.
The LOC was issued because of Amnesty's alleged violations of Foreign Contributions Regulation Act.
With PTI inputs
