Custody of 4 PFI men booked under UAPA while on way to Hathras extended for another 90 days

AGRA: The judicial custody of four PFI men booked under charges of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) by Mathura police has been extended to 180 days by a local court while rejecting their default bail application after completion of their 90 days in custody on Monday.
Additional district and sessions judge Anil Kumar Pandey extended the custody of four men to another 90 days on an application filed by UP Special Task Force (STF).
Citing the reason for extension, STF said that they have applied to take custody of Campus Front of India national general secretary KA Rauf Sherif and will interrogate him. The information gathered during the investigation will be verified with the four men— Masood Ahmad (28), Atikur Rahman (28), Mohammad Aalam (37) and Siddhique Kappan (41) who had been arrested by Mathura police on October 5 while they were heading to Hathras to meet the gangrape victim’s family members.
Rauf is currently lodged in the district jail in Kakkanad following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
Another reason cited in the plea is that a wanted accused in the case, Danish, has not been arrested so far and the information gathered after his arrest will also be verified with the four men. The SIT also claimed that the analysis of FSL data related to a laptop of Siddique Kappan and mobile phones of Atikur Rehman, Aalam and Masood and Kappan is pending and has to be verified with them.
Defence lawyer Madhuvan Dutt Chaturvedi said that the order will be challenged in the Allahabad high court as neither the STF is authorised to present this application nor this court has jurisdiction to extend the suspects’ judicial custody.
Elaborating on this, Chaturvedi said UAPA offences are listed under the NIA Act and section 6 of the Act says that after an offence is registered, the station in-charge is supposed to file a report to the state government, which informs the Centre. “Within 15 days, the Centre takes a call on whether it was a scheduled offence or not,” Chaturvedi said, adding that “The STF is simply not authorised.”
He added that only the government can notify a special court under section 11 (which empowers the Centre) or 22 (which empowers the state) of the NIA Act. “In the absence of a designated court, only the court of the district judge (court of sessions of the division) has jurisdiction over such matters,” said the lawyer.