LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court reprimanded the Uttar Pradesh police’s Anti-Terror squad.
The court questioned why the agency failed to arrest a man accused of heading a group that allegedly tried to illegally settle Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya in India.
The court also asked why a chargesheet was not filed in the case for so long.
The two-judge bench, comprising Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava and Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan, made the remarks while dismissing the anticipatory bail petition of the accused, Abdul Ghaffar.
The court questioned the ATS investigating officer, who was present in court, on why no sincere efforts were made to arrest Ghaffar after his alleged activities, said to endanger national security, came to the agency’s notice in 2021, even before the case was registered in 2023.
“We put on record our serious displeasure and anguish on the callous and careless approach of the Investigating Agency, particularly the Investigating Officer(s) for not taking appropriate and proper steps to apprehend the present appellant in an issue where not only allegations are related for committing cognizable offence but on account of those offences the security, safety, and harmony of the country may likely be jeopardized,” the bench said.
“This fact must come to the notice of the state’s Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, UP, Principal Secretary/Secretary of UP Chief Minister and UP Director General of Police for information and appropriate action/ orders,” the bench further noted.
Ghaffar is one of the 10 persons that the ATS had named as accused in the case registered on October 11, 2023, on charges of human trafficking, cheating, forgery and conspiracy under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Foreigners Act & Passport Act.
“Anticipatory bail to accused in cases of the present nature would greatly harm the investigation and would impede the prospects of unearthing of the ramifications involved in the conspiracy. Public interest also would suffer as a consequence,” the bench observed.
Ghaffar's petition seeking anticipatory bail was rejected by the special NIA court in Lucknow in November, 2025.
The Additional Advocate General (AGA) opposed the petition, saying serious allegations were levelled against the accused and that he had been the kingpin of the syndicate wherein the accused were involved in extending “illegal and unwarranted help” to Bangladeshis and the Rohingya.
The court order also said it was not a fit case to grant anticipatory bail as the allegations were serious, credible evidence and materials were being collected by the investigating agency, and there might be a likelihood of custodial interrogation of the appellant.
Referring to the “case diary”, the AGA said the accused had allegedly created a syndicate by opening accounts, taking cash by illegal means and through hawala transactions from other countries to help infiltrators and unauthorised people, mainly Bangladeshis and Rohingya, involved in anti-India activities.
The court said the AGA had presented relevant extracts of the supplementary case diary, wherein the material indicated that a substantial amount of money from some Rohingya people was transferred to the account of the society run by the accused.
The money received was used to construct houses and huts at some places for the Rohingya in India, it was claimed.
It was submitted in the court that some of the key functionaries of the group were put under surveillance after the National Investigation Agency and the UP ATS found in October 2021 that anti-national activities were being carried out by them.