A Delhi court has recently granted bail to U.K. national Inderpal Singh Gaba in a case of alleged attack on the High Commission of India in London in March 2023. The court noted that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has failed to establish any link of Mr. Gaba with the case.
The Central agency has alleged that the protests held at the High Commission in London on March 19, 2023 and the violent agitation organised on March 22, 2023, were part of the same transaction. It alleged that Mr. Gaba, a resident of Hounslow in west London and a native of Delhi, participated in both incidents which were led and planned by the same set of people with a clear objective of influencing the crackdown on “Waris Punjab De” and its leader Amritpal Singh. The agency cited a photograph of the accused with AK-47 rifle, which, it says is indicative of his tendencies.
The accused was detained by the immigration authorities on the Attari border on December 9, 2023 while he was coming from London via Pakistan. He was later arrested on April 25, 2024 under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Prevention of Insult of National Honour Act, and the IPC.
Vimal Kumar Yadav, Principal District and Sessions Judge, Special Court (NIA), in the January 29 bail order said Mr. Gaba was a young man with clean antecedents. He said insult to the national honour seemed to be a serious allegation against him, nevertheless, no involvement in any act of violent nature had been alleged against the applicant.
“…the NIA is unable to establish any link of the applicant with the incident of March 19, 2023. He was neither present at the spot nor was associated with arranging anything for the demonstration and for that matter, nothing could be shown that he was part of the conspiracy to organise the demonstration on March 19, 2023 or for that matter on March 22, 2023,” the court noted.
It added that even if Mr. Gaba is associated with the incident took place on March 22, he does not fall into the scope and ambit of Section 43 (D) (5) of UA (P) Act and hence is not punishable with death or life imprisonment which also prohibits bail to the persons who are involved in the case.
“All these factors when taken into consideration and the period of custody coupled with the age and the expected time to be taken in trial, then it appears that the trial, which has not commenced so far, would likely to take a very long time. In such circumstances, when there is no mechanism available with the human race to return time to anyone then how far it would be appropriate to keep a person under custody under such allegations, as have been referred above,” the court noted.
‘No rifle recovered’
Commenting on Mr. Gaba’s picture with AK-47, the court noted no such rifle had been recovered, nor for that matter, it could be said conclusively that it was an AK-47 rifle or a dummy. It added that in the era of deepfake photoshop, etc., there could not be any certainty about what had been shown was correct.
“Another aspect is the fancy car registration number KHISTAN of the accused, which, according to the applicant’s disclosure, represents Khalistan. This in itself is not enough to attribute anything, which is unlawful. Even if it is presumed that the allegations are correct, still the applicant can’t be held criminally responsible for committing any offence,” the court said, adding that the applicant could not move out of the country unless the trial was going on.
