New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the order of the Madras High Court which had granted bail to eight alleged members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The Supreme Court said that national security is paramount.
A bench of Justice Bela M. Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal directed the accused, who were granted bail by the High Court on October 19 last year, to immediately surrender and go to jail. While giving its verdict, the bench said, “The order passed by the High Court is cancelled.”
The top court remarked that there is no denying the fact that national security is paramount and any act related to terrorism deserves to be prohibited. The bench gave this decision on the petition filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). NIA had challenged the bail granted to the accused by the Madras High Court in the apex court.
Eight accused – Barkatullah, Irdis, Mohammad Abutahir, Khalid Mohammad, Saeed Ishaq, Khawaja Mohadin, Yasser Arafat and Fayez Ahmed were arrested in September 2022. On October 20 last year, the top court had postponed the hearing on the NIA’s plea challenging the high court order after lawyer Rajat Nair, appearing for the anti-terror agency, requested for its immediate listing.
NIA claimed in its petition that PFI is a fundamentalist Islamic organization and was established to fulfill the ‘dangerous goal’ of establishing Muslim rule in India and governing the country only under Sharia law.
