The Delhi High Court on July 4 asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to give its response on a plea for interim bail filed by the Popular Front of India (PFI) leader O.M.A. Salam, arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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The High Court passed the direction on an appeal by Mr. Salam against a trial court order denying him relief. It asked the NIA to file its response within two weeks and listed the matter for hearing on July 25.
Mr. Salam’s counsel sought two weeks’ interim bail on the ground that his daughter had died in April and his wife was in a “depressive state”.
Mr. Salam, chairman of the PFI, was arrested by the NIA during a crackdown on the banned organisation in 2022. The NIA has alleged that the accused persons had been conducting camps to indoctrinate and train their cadres for terrorist activities. In September 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs declared PFI an “unlawful association” under the UAPA. A large number of PFI activists were detained or arrested in several States following a nationwide crackdown.
The Ministry had said that the group had links with global terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and participated in terror activities in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. It had said that PFI cadres linked to ISIS were killed in these conflict theatres and some were arrested by State police forces and Central agencies.