NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has sought the response of former Amnesty India chief Aakar Patel on a CBI plea challenging a trial court’s order which directed the withdrawal of a Lookout Circular (LOC) issued against him in a case of alleged forex violation.
Justice Yogesh Khanna issued notice to Patel on the CBI’s petition and listed the matter for May 18. Submitting that it was not against the relief granted to Patel, the CBI said its grievance was directed towards the reasoning adopted by the trial court.
In its petition, the CBI said that the trial court returned a finding that the investigating agency can take recourse to provisions of a LOC once an accused has absconded. ‘’Such a view is plainly perverse.” Both the trial court and the magisterial court completely misconstrued the scope and purpose of taking recourse to a LOC notice, it argued.
“A Lookout circular notice is a lesser form of coercive action which an investigating agency can take to ensure that an accused is available to face the process of law. The order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) suggested that a lesser coercive measure like the opening of a LOC should not be resorted to without arresting an accused is completely wrong,” the CBI said. “The fact that even a bank or a financial institution can take recourse to LOC even without an FIR is sufficient indication to suggest that reasoning of the courts is completely erroneous.”
On April 16, the sessions court upheld an order passed by the ACMM directing the CBI to withdraw the LOC against Patel, saying the LOC is “bad in law” and “cannot sustain”. At the same time, it had directed Patel not to leave the country without the magisterial court’s permission. It had said that the LOC was issued on the wrong interpretation of the law and not out of any malice or ill will, “hence, it is not a fit case to call for fixing the accountability of issuance of LOC”.