The Delhi High Court dismissed appeals by the sons of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and others, challenging the framing of charges against them in terror funding cases, citing the interlocutory nature of the order.
A special court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district granted bail to three persons, including two nuns from Kerala, arrested on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion.
The Chhattisgarh government has filed the original suit under Article 131 of the Constitution which empowers a state to move the Supreme Court directly in matters of dispute with the Centre or any other state. It is the first state to challenge the Act.
The Calcutta High Court has ordered the formation of a three-member committee to identify and rehabilitate people displaced by violence during protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act in Murshidabad district. The court also extended the deployment of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) in the area. The committee will consist of officials from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), and the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA). It will be responsible for identifying displaced persons, assessing damage to properties, collecting FIR data, facilitating FIR filing, and overseeing the well-being of displaced individuals. The state government has been instructed to provide necessary infrastructure to the committee and report on its progress by May 15. The court also directed the state to formulate a rehabilitation scheme for displaced persons, including the construction of damaged houses and shops, compensation for lost livelihoods, and protection for families of those who died in the violence.
The latest amendments to the NIA Act will allow the agency to probe terrorist activities against Indians and Indian interests abroad, cyber crimes and cases of human trafficking.
India's Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai, has announced a 71% decrease in terrorist incidents in the country under the Modi government. He credits a "zero tolerance" policy towards terrorism, which has resulted in no terror incidents in the hinterland. Rai also highlighted the National Investigative Agency's (NIA) successes, including the investigation of cases on foreign land and a conviction rate of 95.54%.
Participating in the meeting, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states that the new National Investigation Agency would 'disturb' the federal set up of the country and resented that states were not consulted before the new anti-terror laws were framed. "We will revisit the NIA Act, if needed," he told media persons at the end of a day-long conference of chief ministers on internal security.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Friday said the Centre has directed the National Investigation Agency to probe the Mangaluru blast case.
Justice Anup J Bhambhani, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, said there was an evident haste shown by the NIA in moving pleas across Mumbai and Delhi over weekends and Gazetted holidays (Eid) and obtaining orders by e-mail, and 'whisking away' Navlakha to Mumbai, which has rendered these proceedings infructuous.
"The NIA categorically refuted allegations of mala fide in its Bhupatinagar blast case," an agency spokesperson said.
As a state government report said that the situation is peaceful there, no order was being passed on deployment of central forces as was sought by two petitioners, the court stated.
Before the issuance of the proclamation orders, the court had issued open-ended non-bailable warrants against all five, he added.
The Supreme Court has quashed the Kerala High Court order which discharged an accused, arrested for his alleged Maoist links, for the purported offences including sedition and under the provisions of the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in three cases.
Labelling the NIA as a 'mere political tool' of the BJP government at the Centre, Gogoi said the judgment will be a landmark for those arrested through the misuse of the two anti-terror laws.
"We see no reason to interfere with the high court order," said a bench of Justices U U lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, refusing to consider the submissions raised by the NIA which had moved the apex court against the December 1 order.
A special court at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh has acquitted tribal activist Soni Sori and three others in a case lodged against them in 2011 for alleged transfer of 'protection money' to Naxals.
Talking to reporters in Kolhapur, Pawar said it was not right on the part of the Centre to hand over the probe into the case, which was with the Pune police, to the NIA as law and order was a state subject. NCP leader and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said Uddhav Thackeray had overruled him on the probe in the case.
The Bombay high court on Friday dismissed petitions filed by Ramesh Upadhyay and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, both accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case, questioning probe by National Investigation Agency and also challenging the constitutional validity of the NIA Act.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze Saturday night after questioning him for 12 hours over the recovery of an explosive-laden vehicle near the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, an agency spokesperson said.
The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court that it cannot probe into the murder of anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar as the offence fell under the Indian Police Code and was not covered under the purview of NIA Act.
The youth hails from Kasargod, Kerala, and had left India to the United Arab Emirates in 2018 from where he is believed to have joined the ranks with the global terror organisation in Afghanistan, they said.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde asked senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for PIL petitioners Shashank Shekhar Jha and journalist Savio Rodrigues, to withdraw the plea and approach the high court.
The case was being probed by the Pune Police.
Seeking to re-assure Italy, India on Friday said any doubts on Italian marines being put on trial for committing a terror act should be set aside as the National Investigation Agency is the only agency available to the government for investigating the killing of two Indian fishermen in high seas. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said he would read the assignment of the task to the NIA, not through the NIA Act but by nomination made through the order of the SC.
In the plea, the agency has submitted that the allegations against the accused are that they committed the offence to take revenge against "Muslim Jihadi activities" and "to create a rift between two communities".
The suspension of US aid to Pakistan, which was announced by President Donald Trump in January 2018, remained in effect throughout 2019, the State Department said.
Justifying enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act and transferring the probe in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case to the agency, the Union government on Wednesday told the Bombay high court that Parliament could enact any act for the whole or any part of the country.
Special NIA Judge V S Padalkar said conducting the trial in a "transparent manner" was among the reasons for rejecting the NIA's plea.
The amendments will also allow the NIA to probe cyber crimes and cases of human trafficking.
In a judgment that seeks to define the role of the National Investigation Agency, the Bombay high court has ruled that as a matter of general rule the agency cannot be prohibited from carrying out fresh investigations or re-investigations in specific cases.
Sharad Pawar claims he is not in a position to name the organisations behind the violence at Bhima Koregaon, 'though active role of right-wing forces behind the violence cannot be ruled out.'
A tug of war was witnessed in a Delhi court between the National Investigation Agency and the Special Cell of Delhi Police for seeking the custody of top Indian Mujahideen operatives Tehseen Akhtar and Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas.
In a letter to chief ministers, Shinde said the central government has been receiving various representations on alleged harassment of innocent Muslim youth by law enforcement agencies.
The Centre on Thursday decided to hand over to the National Investigation Agency the probe into the bomb blast in Burdwan in West Bengal in which the role of terror groups is suspected, a decision which the Trinamool Congress government said was taken suo motu.
Italy on Thursday said the trial against its two marines, who allegedly killed Indian fishermen off Kerala coast last year, will be fast and fair and India will honour its commitment given to Rome.
With a controversy erupting over the two arrested alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives and their connection with Muzaffarnagar region, both the accused on Thursday wrote to the Union home minister urging him to transfer the case to the National Investigation Agency for "fair" investigation.
The Ministry of Home Affairs feels that awarding death penalty to the duo will sour ties with Italy, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
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