Madras High Court on Friday quashed the invoking of the National Security Act (NSA) to frame charges against Tameem Ansari, who had allegedly videographed vital defence and atomic installations at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The court order followed a petition filed by Ansari’s wife, Nabila, before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, which claimed that the charges were fabricated.
Police had claimed that Ansari, a native of Tiruchy, had tried to provide maps of ports in Nagapattinam and Karaikal and diagrammatic details of the Madras Atomic Power Station in Kalpakkam to the Pakistan embassy in Colombo.
Rubbishing the charges, Nabila said Ansari was just a member of the CPM and SFI and had no affiliation with caste or religious organisations.
She further claimed that the ‘Q’ branch police forced Ansari to give false statements that he had tried to supply vital information on national security to the Pakistani embassy in Colombo and detained him under the NSA.
The present petition prayed for a direction to the police to provide her with the entire detention records, including the CCTV recordings of the Tiruchy police.
Nabila’s counsel Alugumani said as per the law it was mandatory to immediately provide NSA dentenues a copy of the report that describes the grounds under which action was taken against them. Yet, the Q-branch Sub-Inspector failed to do so.
Also, since Ansari had never moved a bail plea, it was illegal to detain him on grounds of a mere assumption that he would engage in anti-national activities, if he is released, the counsel argued. A Bench comprising justices A Selvam and M Sathyanarayanan observed that since Ansari had not filed a bail petition, the government’s contention was not valid, and quashed the NSA applied on Ansari.